Les Âmes Soeurs
by AnniKay
Summary: The gang has moved to New York. College and career are on the horizon…Are the Original New Directions ready for what all the future holds?
1. Can't Hold Us & School Days

**Les Âmes Soeurs**  
>AnniKay<p>

Sam/Mercedes/Puck  
>Disclaimer: I own Nothing…Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennen along with Fox and others own this fandom and all the characters there in…Anything you recognize obviously belongs to them<br>******THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!******

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><p><strong>I took the entire month of December off to recharge the batteries. All I did was do the background research and figure out some of the plot points. My lack of posting has nothing at all to do with my betas; their turnaround was stellar as always.<strong>

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><p><strong>Special thanks to KayBee80 &amp; Illiandyanndra who have been Beta rock stars for all of my ten stories<strong>

**Summary: **The gang has moved to New York. College and career are on the horizon…Are the Original New Directions ready for what all the future holds?

*****Want to see the finishes and details for the Brownstone…Check out Illy's Flicker Account.

*****Want to see the 'face claims' or, as I call it, the Casting Call for the OCs…Check out The Illy and Anni Yahoo Group.

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><p><strong>Can't Hold Us (Macklemore)<br>**_Puck PoV_

Our first Labor Day all on our own was all kinds of cool. In an effort to get to know our tenants and because it was hot and it seemed like a good idea at the time, the eight of us decided to have a barbeque. Mills had done a great job filling the downstairs apartments so we had four people relying on us and only knew one of them even close to well. In the fully empty apartment, she had placed a psychology grad student from CUNY and a law student from NYU. She had even managed to find Ryan a roommate before he finished fully unpacking his stuff. His free bedroom was filled with a NYADA sophomore who had moved in the Saturday morning before the holiday. The BBQ was actually not a bad idea. The place was already set up for us to do stuff in the backyard all four units shared. Kurt had the builders create a nice patio space, he hadn't gone all crazy and decked the thing out with an outdoor kitchen or anything extreme, but it had plenty of space for grilling and lounging.

Saturday afternoon, while Sexy Mama was getting her new weave put in, Sam, Anderson and I borrowed Sexy Mama's Tahoe and drove to a Home Depot on the upper west side. After some arguing and picking apart the different features of the ones they had in stock, we ended up picking out a bomb ass Weber propane grill. Sam also grabbed a largish charcoal grill, because according to him hot dogs just weren't the same off the propane grill. Anderson made sure that we grabbed two of the propane tanks and a big ass bag of charcoal and some lighter fluid. We also grabbed some really cool grilling tools. We might have gone a little overboard; probably we didn't really need a different set for each of us.

While the three of us were at Home Depot, Artie had dragged Satan and Brittany to Best Buy. He was determined to make our cookout the certified, bonified and total shit. The next day, Kurt and Sexy Mama were just as resolute in their pursuit of the same goal; they were just going at it from a different angle. As soon as we'd all agreed that we wanted to do the whole Labor Day barbeque thing, the two of them had immediately decided that they were in charge of buying all the food. We wanted to do the thang right, but we also didn't want to blow through the all food the parents had bought us before they left the week before. So each of the eight of us chipped in a hundred bucks, fifty for specifically for the meats for our _simkhe_, and the rest to go for all the other food crap they started planning. Blaine just waited until they finally started winding down on their reenactment of the planning of the Tet Offensive and asked politely that Mercedes make some of Angel Mom's shrimp salad. I knew I liked Anderson…stupid first name or not.

Since a second Home Depot expedition demanded the space of the Tahoe, and Art-man was adamant that he still needed the Cayenne to get the right set up for the back yard -plus Satan really didn't let anyone else drive it. Not that I blamed her; it _was_ a Porsche. Cede and Fairy took advantage of the fact that Uncle Saul had added her, Sammyboy and myself to his zip car account. Apparently since NYC has some of the best food shopping in the world, Cede and her bestie did that shit up HUGE. What they called grocery shopping did not resemble what I called grocery shopping in any shape form or fashion. They didn't hit one store and get everything in one stop like I would have. They didn't hit a big box store and a grocery store like Mom would have. No, not Sexy Mama and Hummer, that would be silly. Instead they actually woke up at the ass crack of dawn and went to some special produce market. Then a special seafood market, on the way home they stopped in at a kosher butcher and got all the beef and chicken and a normal butcher for the pork. After they got all of that they came home, put it all away in the fridges, they headed back out and went to some specialty spice market they had seen on Food Network or something. After that they finally made it to a store with a name I actually recognized, Super Target. There they got all the stuff the toi-toi places they had been all morning would never carry; chips and sodas and ice cream and shit that made working out worth it.

My jaw actually hit the floor when I saw how much stuff they had gotten. First of all, I never thought you could get that much fresh fruits, vegetables and meats in Manhattan for eight hundred bucks, let alone all the rest of the food stuff. Second of all, I thought we were just having a little barbeque. When I said as much to Babygirl, she smiled at me and laughed. "Boo…you do know that we're about to enter the busiest time in our lives, don't you? Anything that you and the guys grill up that we don't eat is gonna get frozen and we can have it for dinner later on when we have no time to cook. As for the sides, the freezable ones…we'll make twice as much as we need and freeze half. That's the reason we shopped the way we did…so we could get as much as possible for our money. For the next month or two we're going to be running crazy between school, meetings, getting the album recorded…and whatever else God decides to toss in to our path."

"True, true." I agreed pulling her into my arms. "Artie still gonna work with Tana for our background vocals?" I asked quietly. Mr. Cohen was cool with us using our friends and paying them like regular background artists, but Artie was having a hard time with the thought of taking money for what he saw as 'helping his friends'.

She nodded, her face burrowing into my pecs. "Yeah. I was finally able to convince him that being able to say he did professional behind the scenes work could only help him later, and since we are using one of the Warner studios, even it if it is off site he might still make some good connections. They say in the movie business, it's as much who you know as what you can do."

"Gotcha, play the 'think about the future' angle." I teased her a little.

That must have struck a little bit of a nerve because she popped my back. "Stop that. Don't act like I'm manipulating our friend just to make our lives easier."

"No, not just…" I laughed at the look on her face when she tilted her head back to glare at me. "You know I'm just playing."

"Yeah, yeah…alright, I'd better get to work. You'd better shoo before I find something better for you to do other than torturing me." she teasingly chided.

"Babygirl, you know you don't even have to ask." I ran over to the sink and washed my hands, came back and dropped a kiss to the top of her head before asking her what she wanted me to do.

Since I had volunteered, Cede wasted no time at all in putting me to work. Kurt joined us and while we started working on the marinades for the meats, he started peeling and slicing and dicing for some of the side dishes. In pretty short order we had the beef ribs marinating in one thing, the T-bones in something else, the sirloins in a different concoction, the chicken bone in pieces and wings in something else, the chicken breasts in something, the big ass shrimp in one mixture and finally the salmon fillets in some lemon, herb, olive oil deal. The pork ribs just got a dry rub. Sexy Mama didn't use any of those bottle marinades either. She made all that shit herself. Once all of the meats were soaking and in the fridge, Cede directed me on how to boil the small shrimp for the Angel Mom salad. The three of us were talking and laughing. Hummer isn't so bad now that I know him and realized that he can't really help himself for dressing so damn prissy. He's just got a border line OCD or something. I will say that I don't think that I ever realized how much he knew about Cede, Sam and my sex life. Apparently, Sexy Mama knew just as much about his and Anderson's so I guess it was a bestie thing.

"Hey, how come girls can talk among themselves all about what goes down in the bedroom with their significant others, but when guys do it we get told off." I asked curiously.

"Probably because the insecurities women have won't allow them to be sure that their guys are bragging on them, not slamming them." Santana said as she came in carrying some big ass Party City bags. "I got some 'we don't give a fuck' dishes. Puck, there is more shit in the Cayenne." She tossed me the keys, "go get it while Britts and I start washing all this shit so we can use it tomorrow."

"Good looking out." Cedes threw them both big smiles. "That way we won't end up dragging our good serving dishes and stuff outside."

"Yup, got paper plates and stuff too. There will be no real dishes or glasses out on the patio." Santana growled. "Ain't been here but a hot minute. It is way too early to be breakin' shit. Puck, you might wanna grab Trouty and one of the other guys too. There are some folding tables and chairs. Brittany wanted to make sure that we had enough places for people to sit."

"Sam and Blaine are both out back helping Artie setup the sound system. We were all wondering where the two of you had disappeared to." Kurt pointed out as he replaced the fully cooked shrimp with eggs that needed to be boiled on the stove. "Artie will probably thank you for getting them out of his hair."

"See, you have plenty of help." Santana told us as she started taking the labels off all the plastic dishware. "Oh and Ben's friends Sam and Sock decided to surprise him since they had the long weekend off. He wanted to know if it would be okay with us if he brought them along. Plus, Jon wants to know if it's okay if he brings his girlfriend Mallory?"

"I'm good with that." Sexy Mama nodded. "We're all booed up, no reason to exclude Jonathan's honey. And of course Ben can bring his friends. He wouldn't come otherwise and this is about getting to know them.

Kurt agreed too. Santana didn't even try to see if I had an objection and I knew she wouldn't say a thing to Anderson, Art-man or Sam…for something like that she wouldn't count our opinions anyway unless we had a major problem with something. "I forgot to tell you guys. Ben offered to provide us with alcoholic refreshments for the barbeque."

"Uncle Saul made the same offer before he and Mills decided to go up to the Hamptons with Neil and Jarrard. Granted, he said he'd get us one beer each and a couple of bottles of wine. But still the offer was made. Something tells me that's not what Ben means."

"No." Kurt shook his head. "He mentioned making Mai Tais or Pina Coladas or Sangria."

Cede worried her bottom lip, making me want to kiss her senseless. "Maybe we should tell Ben and his friends thanks but no thanks…we start classes the very next morning. It would be a bad idea to show up all hungover."

I went over and pulled my love into my arms pressing kisses to her shoulder and neck. "We'll be fine as long as we don't drink too much. Nobody try to kill a pitcher all by themselves and we're golden. I don't know why they give first semester freshmen classes that start so early. I mean I've got an eight o'clock class…it's like being back in high school all over again." I grumbled.

"You do realize that classes in high school started at twenty minutes to eight…right?" Fairy pointed out.

I looked at him quizzically, "and? Your point is?"

Hummel smirked. "No point. Just an observation."

For some reason, his comment threw me back to the very first day Sam, Mercedes and I had walked into McKinley as a thruple. "Don't worry Fairy, I promise to carry books this time." Of course everybody in the kitchen looked at us like we'd lost our minds when we started laughing so hard that we could barely stand. Once we got our breath back, I grabbed the guys and we went and emptied the car while Kurt and Cede pressed Tana and Britts into service.

By the time dinner rolled around, Sexy Mama, Hummer, Satan, Britts and I had spent so much time getting the meats and side dishes ready for the next day that we barely wanted to eat food let alone cook any. So Anderson hooked us all up with pizza from a little place right on the edge of Morningside Heights and Harlem. Artie, Sam and Richie Rich had gotten the grills, patio furniture, tables and sound system all assembled and setup, so we were set.

When we went up to bed we were supposed to head to bed. The next day was scheduled to start early and would hopefully end pretty late. It didn't matter. We got in the room and Cede started getting undressed for her shower and all thoughts of going to sleep early went out of our heads. Sam and I waited for a second until she got down to her pretty teal bra and panty set and then we struck. We enveloped her, trapping her between us, taking turns kissing her until she was as aroused as we were. Sammyboy and I might have tried to do our usual top, alpha thing, but that night Mama swapped that shit on us with the quickness. She knelt between us and tried her very best to fit both our cocks into her mouth at the same damn time. That shit felt completely awesome. She ended up covered in cum that Sammyboy and I had great fun cleaning off her while getting ready to fuck her until we were all too tired and satisfied to do anything but sleep.

Of course, considering how late we were up boning and sexing, we overslept. Thankfully the Fairy got the day of preparations underway. Sam and me rushed through our showers and got dressed. I threw on some cargo shorts and a tee shirt that everyone had gotten at Sam's family reunion. It was a great shade of blue that Hummer would tell me later was called lapis, with black writing across the front that said 'Just Puckett'. Some socks and tennis shoes and I was ready to go. I headed back into the bathroom to see what was keeping Sam. He'd gotten distracted watching our woman as she showered. I shoved him towards the bedroom and watched the rest of the show myself. I could see why he had though. It was kind of like watching a naughty peek-a-boo show. The way the shower enclosure was done with the frosting and then the swirls of clear glass watching Cede shower meant that we might see a nipple or it might be obscured by the opaque glass. It was so fucking sexy. But before I could shuck off my gear and join Babygirl, Sam dragged me down to the back yard.

Since all of the prep shit had been done the day before we were cooking in no time. Making sure that I was alone in the kitchen, I threw together a big pot of Carole's special BBQ sauce while Sam got the charcoal grill going. She had taught it to me a few summers ago when Finn had proven that he was hopeless in the kitchen or at the grill. Blaine took care of firing up the propane grill for me. Once it was hot, I laid out the beef and pork ribs. I looked over and noticed that Sam had grabbed the foil packets of vegetable and started letting them start cooking while the coals got ready for the meats. Ben and his boys came out around eleven with coolers of beer and pitchers of sangria with fruit and shit floating in it. Sock was pretty cool. He and I got along immediately. Man, that dude was fucking hilarious. It was easy to tell that he had never really been able to like, talk, to any gay guys before. He kept asking Hummel if gay guys would consider him hot. But thankfully he was funny enough about it that nobody got offended. Ben's Sam was way intrigued with 'all the polyamory' going on in our house. He very quickly proclaimed that Artie was the 'king of nerdy dudes everywhere'.

Jon came up with his girl Mallory; a tall, leggy brunette with fake blue eyes and even faker tits; and a huge ass platter of his grandma's special recipe cookies. Jonathan Scully and Benjamin Gonzalez looked like the newest version of the odd couple or some shit. They didn't look like they would even know each other let alone have been best friends and roommates since their second year of college. While Ben, at five seven, was a shortish, lanky, Latino with long, curly hair, Jon looked more Irish than Rory ever had. He was at least six five, broad and solidly built. He had reddish, dirty blonde hair and honestly he looked like he was ready to rip off somebody's head and spit down their throat if he wasn't smiling. Luckily he smiled a lot.

I didn't much care for his girlfriend Mallory. She was in her first year of the MBA program at Columbia. She was cold blooded like only a rich bitch can be. But that wasn't why I didn't like her. While, Ryan, Sam and I had been helping Ben and Jon move their shit in, the faithless bitch had flirted with all three of us whenever Jon wasn't around. Hell even for the barbeque, it was like she was trying too hard or something. Tana and Britts came out wearing shorts and a baby tee and a tank top and flip flops. When Cede finally made it down she was rocking some sexy ass purple, capri length leggings and a strapless cotton tunic top that showed off her tits so good they were making my mouth water. She had finished her 'casual but cute' look off with her favorite pair of purple flip flops. But not Mallory. She came out in a hella expensive looking sundress and high wedge sandals that had Gucci embossed on the wedge.

Ryan and Seth came up dragging what looked like the bouncy house's answer to Twister. It was a lot bigger than the traditional Twister sheet and it was inflatable. The last to arrive lived in what had been the extra bedroom in Ryan's apartment. Jamison Michaels was a cute black girl from South Carolina with a cute face, long hair that Cede swore was real in that 'it grew forth from her scalp', and a real dancer's body. Ryan took her around and introduced her to everyone. During the leasing process she had only met Brittany, Ryan and Anderson. They had all approved her and so had Mills, so she was in. Within twenty minutes of meeting the rest of us, she and Kurt had bonded over NYADA and she was planning on being something of a mentor for him around campus. Santana and Jamie did their bonding while dissecting Mallory's overdone makeup and way-too-expensive-for-a-backyard-barbeque getup. When she came over to me she looked me up and down and said quite honestly, "I have no idea what to say to a guy with a Mohawk…none at all."

"So let me guess; you talked theatre with Kurt, hair or music with Cede, southern culture with Sam, dissed fake chicks with Satan…you haven't had a chance for any one on one time with Britts or Artie, but you'll find some common ground with each of them. Relax, it's okay, you passed the interview…you got the job…or apartment as the case may be. You can stop buttering us up." I said lightly.

Jamie nodded thoughtfully. "Okay cool. So then can I ask? I mean Ryan said that you and Sam and Mercedes were together and Santana and Brittany and Artie are together. You are all from the same home town and were in the same glee club together. So is the whole threesomes thing like a thing in Ohio?"

I stopped and gave her a total 'judging you' look. "I passed English with the lowest grade I could get and Cede's and Sam's parents still let me sleep with my loves and even I know that that sentence was all kinds of wrong."

"Did you get what I was asking?" Jamie kicked back with a roll of her eyes. I nodded. "Well then it was right enough…Are you gonna answer?"

I shrugged. "For some people high school is so bad it is as much of a bonding experience as war. Cede, Kurt, Artie started off as the tortured. Tana and I were their tormentors. Brittany was too but in a kind of negligent kind of way. Different shit happened and we ended up tormented ourselves and Cede, Kurt and Artie…the rest of the glee club took us in and we all bonded. Sam moved into town and Cede and I were complete. Artie and Britts fell in love, but she loved Tana too…so she tried to just be with Tana, but she still loved Artie, when Tana realized that she loved him too…it just works for us. Kurt and Anderson are going on two years together. Sam, Cede and me are at fifteen months and Bartana hit a year in July."

"Wow, that's kind of deep." Jamie said with a wide grin. "It's weird. I'm sure that you get all kinds of shit for your relationship, but you come across as really loving your Sam and Mercedes. That's cool. After a year away from them I barely remember half my classmates, and if it weren't for Facebook, I probably wouldn't be in touch with nearly as many. It's really nice that you and your peeps are keeping up with each other. So what can I bond with Artie over?"

I shrugged. "Nineties hip hop and R&B, comic books, sci-fi shit, how hot his girl friends are…movies, books, actual science, how hot his girlfriends are… computers, cameras, tech shit, how hot his girlfriends are…that's about it."

Jamie looked at me like I had grown a second head. "Umm…I consider both Santana and Brittany very pretty, but they don't have what it takes for me to consider them hot."

"Yeah they do…they just bought theirs from a store rather than coming equipped." I told her with a dirty grin before I headed over to see how Jon and Ben and his boys were getting along.

But before I could make it more than a few steps, Artie came out and shouted, "Let's get this party started. Now, since the point of this whole shindig is to get to know each other 'cause hey, we from small town middle America and it seems wrong not to know the people who live basically in the same house as us; let's all take a second and introduce our selves. But since just standing up and giving your name, rank and serial number is boring and lame…we each have to stand, give our name, where you're from and all that usual BS, then tell us your favorite thing about being here in the city that never sleeps, and our biggest fear about starting whatever stage of life you're entering." He waited patiently until we all groaned and threw shit at him. "I have to go first because my parents thought that having As start both my names was just a great idea. I am Artie, former Limian, current NYU/Tisch freshman, Hubby of both Santana and Brittany. If you've got a problem with that please let me know so that I can ignore your existence from here on out. We live in Numba Two. I'm on your contact list as tech support, do not call me for trivial shit though." He threw up a peace sign. "I like NYC because nobody gives a fuck here. Seriously…I saw a drag queen in a chair the other day. That was so freaking cool. Biggest fear about going to college is that I'm only damn near genius level smart when compared to my old classmates. That in the real world I'm not as special as I thought."

"Hold up…if you are damn near genius level smart, why were you only third in the class?" Cede asked curiously. "Do me and Tana need to drive back to Lima and kick Figgins ass?"

Artie laughed. "It wasn't Figgins' fault…Tanaka would pass me in PE, but he only gave me a C…it fucked up my GPA."

"Wow that man was an asshole." I said with no little bit of hate. Asshole may have been too nice a word to describe that jerk.

"Alright, thanks and all but it's water under the bridge." Artie brushed our indignations off. "Ben, you're up next then Blaine cause you've got the next name in alphabetical order going by first names…and we're going by first names cause I don't remember everybody's last names yet."

"Hola, that's hello to anybody other than Santana. I'm Ben Gonzalez from Seattle…basically. I mean technically I'm from a suburb named Puyallup, but still. I'm starting NYU Law tomorrow. "I think I'm gonna focus on litigation. Then I can work as either a prosecutor or a defense attorney. I don't really have a steady girl. These are my boys Bert Wysocki better known as Sock and Samuel, AKA Sam, Oliver. I'm not really afraid of anything right now, but I cannot wash out and end up back home looking like an idiot. It took me too long to get my shit straight and get to school."

Blaine rolled his eyes and stood from where he was chilling on the outdoor sofa with Kurt. "Okay, I guess it's my turn. I'm Blaine Anderson from Lima, Ohio. I currently live in Number four. I'm starting Columbia tomorrow, along with about half of my housemates. My major is Business and Political Economy. I'm in love with this very handsome young man next to me. What I love about New York is that I can just BE here. Back home Kurt and I had to keep our touches and everything quiet so as not to offend the passersby. Here we can just walk together like a normal couple and its okay. I guess my biggest fear about starting college is not doing well enough to make everyone proud of me. I have a company that I will inherit from my dad, and I have to be able to make it a success so that none of the people who work for us are harmed."

"Damn that's deep. I mean whoa. I don't know if you meant for me to do this too, but hell I like to talk so I'm gonna jump in anyway. I'm Sock…Benji's friend since like forever. We used to get high together, but then he got scared straight and came to school but I refuse to let him forget his slacker roots. I like New York because there are a lot of gorgeous women here. I mean just looking around this yard and you see four different types of sexy represented. Five if you're into the 'chew out your heart and feast on your innards' type. I'm not entering a new stage of my life…and I like it that way. Growing up is bullshit. So onto the next one." Socks laughed.

Britts bounced up next and told the new folk who she was and that she loved NYC because she got to sleep every night with Wheels and Tana. The looks on their faces were priceless when she said she was too awesome to be scared of anything but she did miss knowing what would happen that day thanks to Lord Tubbington who she explained was her cat that got psychic powers when he had catnip. I guess they saw that the Lima contingent wasn't fazed by her communicating, clairvoyant feline, so those unused to Brittany S. Pierce just let it go. That was pretty smart of them since Santana looked like she was ready willing and more than able to fuck up anyone of them who tried to say boo about Britts specialness.

Jamison was up next. She had taken a second during the other introductions to help Ryan and Seth with their addition to the party so she had to scramble to her feet when Artie called her name. "Okay…I'm Jamison Beverly Michaels. Born and raised in Spartanburg South Carolina. I've been doing musical theater since I was cast as Annie at the Converse College production of well, Annie, when I was six. NYADA seemed like a good fit for me so here I am. Tomorrow I begin my second year. Last year I was lucky enough to be in the Winter Showcase. So I've guess I'm scared of not living up to my hype this year. Oh, and as cliché as it sounds the thing I love most about being in New York is the music. No matter what kind of music you're into, you can find it here. In clubs, on stages, hell in the subway, there is nowhere else like it."

We found out that Jonathan was from a Navy family and had grown up in a whole bunch of places. He loved New York because it was a lot closer to his favorite relatives down in Maryland and DC and a whole country away from his father and perfect older brother. He feared that he wouldn't make as good a psychologist as his uncle and aunt thought he would be. He said they were his biggest supporters and he didn't want to disappoint them.

Kurt was next. It was no surprise that he loved the 'Great White Way' and the fashion or that he feared having to go back to Lima because he wasn't good enough. I didn't think he had anything to worry about but I definitely understood not wanting to end up as a Lima Loser after getting the fuck out of that town. He sat down and then Mallory decided to hop her happy ass up. "My name is Charlotte Mallory Koch. Technically I'm from Wichita…but I grew up between a house in LA and an apartment here on the upper west side. I'm working on getting my MBA in global economics and my Masters in communications from Columbia. Like Blaine, I'll be entering the family business after I graduate. I really only fear that by the time I graduate the country will be even worse off. That the economy will be completely tanked and all values and morals will have withered on the vine." The look she gave the rest of us showed that she truly felt that we were part of the problem.

Ben just laughed. "Mal, please stop preaching all that sanctimonious garbage around me. I know that you are nobody's virgin, you drink to excess at least two nights a week, you're judgmental and have a very loose relationship with the truth. So if we're all going to hell…you're right there with us."

"You all will have to excuse Mallory. She just got back from a summer with her family…she must have been drinking the Kool-Aid." Jonathan said as he pulled her back into the seat next to him.

Sexy Mama gave the bitch a severe side eye. "Okay on that note." She started and quickly introduced herself, including the fact that she, Sam and I were deeply in love. She talked about how she was looking most forward to experiencing as many different aspects of New York life as she could. Her fear was that things might prove too much for us and we'd let people down. I noticed that she was kind of careful not to mention anything very specific so I did the same thing. Ryan's intro was way more interesting. He said no more than five words for each part. His fear was stated simply as "Failure."

Our Sam went next. "I'm Sam Evans, of Nashville, Tennessee by way of Lima Ohio. I belong with and to Puck and Mercy. Anybody who doesn't like that fact can kiss my country ass." I should have realized that Sam would be seething about the comments Mallory had made earlier. His parents were proud southern liberals…which was still pretty conservative compared to, like, Californian liberals but he'd have found that pseudo-Christian allusion to our relationships being wrong as a personal attack. "My favorite thing about New York is that there are so many different cultures coexisting. That is all kinds of awesome, the freedom to exist and coexist and just be is way beyond cool. The thing I fear moving into this new 'stage' of life…like everyone else…not making it. I'm scared of not succeeding at college or growing up in general."

Ben's friend Sam looked around. Since all the other guests had gone as well we were all looking at him like he needed to get up and make with the talking. "Okay. I'm Samuel Oliver. I have a fairly boring life in Puyallup Washington. I tried the whole college thing and it so didn't work. I've gotta agree with Sock…the women in this city are all kinds of beautiful. I'd try to say something flirty about you ladies, but I'm not as funny as Sock and I don't want your guys to kick my ass. My life is stagnant for the next little while so there's no fear other than like getting fired or dying or something."

When he sat back down, Seth popped up quicker than a Jack-in-a-box. "I am Seth Ezekiel Cohen, Ryan's brother and therefore the unofficial third roommate in number eight at least until I manage to make some friends at school…but when you consider that my first friend at school back home was Ryan when my parents adopted him when we were in high school…it could take some time. So Artie, if you need some help acting as IT for this crew, let me know. I've got your back. I like this city cause that's where my bro lives and Sam…Evans not Oliver, cause Sam is the man when it comes to helping me with continuity in my comic. I have a girlfriend, she's at Brown, but she would cosmically sense it if I called any other woman hot, though she has given me leave to say that Mercedes is and that if Mercy-Cede will let me I can add her to my comic, cause the book needs some ethnicity and apparently it is hard to tell a Jewish person from a regular white person in a comic book. I guess my fear is that I haven't learned anything in the last three years and I still have no idea how to make friends or influence people."

I decided to bite the bullet. "Ummm…Seth, hate to be the one to break it to you, but you were the one to get us all talking when we did the campus tour. Ryan isn't that chatty."

"Maybe not but Ryan has made a habit out of teaching me when to shut up and what not to say." Seth pointed out.

"Oh yeah, that whole what not to say thing is hard. I mean, I still remember talking with Artie when he was dating Brittany and I was dating Santana and saying that I hoped that our friendship would be as close as theirs…when they were actually an undercover couple." Sam laughed.

Artie chuckled too. "You so made me think that Kurt had been right about you when you first moved to Lima." Oh no. I've seen that look on Artie's face. He is about to say something he thinks is wrong, but he can't help himself. "Then again since you've got Puck in your bed too…I guess your lemon juice blondeness was a homosexuality indicator after all."

Sam looked fierce and for a second I though he was really mad. But then he rolled his eyes and affected his 'Just Jack' voice. "Catch the vapors, and clutch the pearls…how many times must I tell you people. I'm not homosexual, I'm not heterosexual…I'm Puck'n'Mercy-sexual…much more satisfying."

That set the party off right. The rest of the afternoon was hilarious as Sam, Seth and Sock all tried to make people laugh so hard they shot any of the various drinks out of their noses. It only got worse once we started sipping on Ben's sangria. He'd made a red and a white and laughingly told us that the white had some tequila and the red had some brandy. "Either way, we're gonna have a damn good day." He said as he poured the very first glass. Around one, Mercedes, Kurt and Santana had us set up one of the extra tables as a buffet and they brought out the sides. Between the different meats and all the sides, we were all full and happy by three. The grills however were kept busy until almost six.

But other than Kurt, Blaine, Cede and Sam going in for about an hour to put all the barbequed hot dogs, hamburgers, ribs, steaks, chicken breasts and other parts into zip loc bags and into the freezers, we all just chilled out in the back yard. I don't know if I have ever done anything that as much fun with my clothes on as playing the bouncy Twister with one hell of a good buzz. Eventually as it always does when we are involved, singing and dancing commenced. Jamie had a damn good voice; she and Cede did a James Brown song together and pretty much brought down the house. Nobody wanted to go after them. Around ten Sammy, Cede and I headed on up to our room…we had class bright and early the next morning and none of us wanted to fuck up.

**School Days (Chuck Berry)**  
><em>Mercedes PoV<em>

There was never a point in my life where I wasn't an undercover nerd. I loved back to school shopping. I loved getting my backpack together and ready ahead of time. I knew what was going to be my first day of classes outfit when I bought it in LA. After we finally decided to head up to our room, I headed into my closet and pulled the outfit together and set it aside on my 'what I'm wearing tomorrow' shelf. That done, I double checked my back pack and added my wallet and ids. The only thing I would need to drop in in the morning would be my phone and my iPad.

"Baby, you're set." Sam teased leaning against the doorjamb. "Noah's running us a bath. Leave that bag alone; if you repack it one more time…it might just sprout legs and run away. Time for us to go and relax."

I giggled a little at having gotten caught, but I let him pull me away from my OCD like nitpicking. I wrapped my hair before joining my men in our jetted tub. The bath lasted twice as long as it probably should have and by the time we got out, my legs were wobbly, my breasts sore from all the attention the guys had paid them and I would probably need to rethink the top I'd planned to wear to hide the multitude of hickeys I was sporting. Puck and Sam helped me slather on the lotion and I repaid them by giving them oral pleasure until they begged me to stop. I was a little shocked when I fell asleep sated and satisfied.

I'd set my clock for six and despite being very excited, it was still hell to get my ass out of the bed. Thankfully I wasn't leaving Sam and Noah behind looking comfy either. They had to get up too. Working together, our bed was made very quickly. I threw on some exercise clothes as they did the same and we headed down to the workout room. Blaine was there already and he said that Kurt had gone over to Number 2 to stretch and warm up with Brittany. Blaine, Sam, Noah and I warmed up with some yoga and then Puck started working with the weights, Sam got himself strapped into the power tower and started working on his core while Blaine went to work doing a million pushups. I hit the treadclimber and did thirty minutes on that. I cooled down with some more yoga and showered while the guys finished their more intensive workouts.

Kurt and I met in the kitchen and by seven we had breakfast for everyone ready. Spinach, bacon and Swiss omelets with whole grain toast and fruit smoothies; they were healthy and hopefully would give us all the energy we needed for the morning. Kurt, Santana, Brittany, Artie and I ate together and then Artie headed out to get to NYU before his eight o'clock. The rest of us headed back to our rooms to get dressed. Noah was just finishing his shower and Sam was getting dressed when I walked back into the room. I'd thrown on a pair of ivory tanga panties and the matching embroidered demi bra under a maxi dress to go and cook. So it was easy to toss off the dress and fix my hair and face. I poured myself into a pair of black wash capri length jeans. I topped it with a cute tiered tank top that was a bright purple color with ivory lace embellishments at the scoop neck and straps. I had a black wash denim jacket to take with me in case classes were as cold as they were in high school. I slipped my feet into a pair of black thong wedges, grabbed my stuff and was ready to walk out the door.

Puck had thrown on a pair of comfortable jeans and his Overlook Hotel tee, shoved his feet into socks and some sneakers while I took the bathroom to do my face and hair. By the time I finished dressing he and Sam had eaten, grabbed their back packs, which I may have packed for them a few days before too, and were ready to go. I looked over at Sam and he was wearing his WWJSD shirt, wearing his inner nerd right on front street. Unlike Puck though, he'd gone with some cargo shorts and was looking very much like a college student. Blaine said his goodbyes to Kurt and the Columbia contingent walked the eight blocks to campus together. We got to campus in time for Puck to be right on time for his statistics class. Sam and Ryan headed off to their classes, both of which started at twenty minutes after eight. Blaine and I had some time to kill so we asked around and found a little coffee shop to chill out in until we needed to make our way to our English class.

From the moment that class was called to order to the end of my colloquium at Juilliard on Friday evening, life was just a blur of syllabi, and lectures and figuring out scheduling and how to get to places without being late to anything. I made notes not just on the lecture materials, but on the train schedules and the best ways to get between Columbia and Juilliard. Though the first day of classes was actually Tuesday, we were expected to attend our Monday classes, which kind of threw me, but in the end it seemed to work out fine. Puck, Sam and I did carve out some time to go to Temple with Bubbie for Rosh Hashanna, even if we didn't really celebrate the holiday the way it was supposed to be done. I saw my Columbia-attending housemates on the daily, but despite basically living together I didn't see most of the others until Friday night. We ordered Chinese, worked through some last minute changes to a few of the songs we were wanting to record and vegged out.

The second week of school was a little easier as we worked our way into a routine. But it also included Yom Kippur. I truly love him, but a fasting Noah is a pain in the ass. Those twenty-five hours felt like they lasted a month and a half. The third week of classes was interrupted by a lunch meeting with Lyor, Josh Todd and Keith Nelson. By the time we had to rush out of there to make our Juilliard classes, we were golden to cover their song and couldn't wait for our first day of recording that following Saturday. Unfortunately, that weekend day started really early we had to be up at seven to get to the studio by nine. Lyor and Deborah met us there and introduced us to the producers we had to choose from. Deborah had already done the preliminary screenings. The six producers she brought to us were all used to working with newer artists. Their fees are all within our budgetary constraints and were all willing to work around our hellacious schedules.

But it only took us like ten minutes to get rid of one. He was so big into HipHop that there was no way he would be able to help us create the fusion sound that we wanted to create. Another bit the dust when he looked disgusted when Sam made a joke about Puck's lower lip and his dick. Either the guy was homo-phobic or he just didn't like crass humor. Either way he was all wrong for us, between Sam and Puck's humor and Kurt and Blaine obvious gayness…that guy would have had an aneurysm in a day. The third guy to go shot himself in the foot just as much as the other two, he was determined that we'd only work with his approved background musicians and singers. The look he gave Sam when he pointed out that he and Noah both intended to play for our album and that we had our own background singers got him kicked out by Lyor before Puck could open his mouth or even worse, Santana could open hers.

The other three were all very cool. They listened to what we had to say and talked to us rather than just to Lyor and Deborah. Xavi Rossi was a young, up and coming producer who likened our sound to an R&B version of the Evanescence kind of fusion sound. Since I was an Amy Lee fan, I didn't mind the comparison at all. The other two were actually a pair of producers that worked together and called themselves ANSANE. They were Canadian and had begun as pure rap beat makers, but were hype to get their fingers into other pots. Noah, Sam and I got the best feeling from ANSANE but we liked Xavi as well. In the end we talked everything through and decided to stick with all three. Our hope was that it would allow for a more interesting album to have several producers rather than just the same sound across the board.

After lunch we decided to have a test session with Xavi first. Santana, Artie and Blaine were all soon ushered into the booth to lay background vocals for the first track we were going to record, a R&B heavy, rock light song I'd written during the time Sam and Puck hadn't been talking Senior year. In fact, the lyrics had been completed the day before their knuckle buster. Once Xavi was happy with the background vocals, he set us up to record the main track. Blaine took the baby grand in the studio, while Artie, Noah and Sam all grabbed their guitars. The music itself was bare bones and stripped down, everything acoustic. When Xavi finished the rough cut, we were all shocked. He'd pulled forward the piano and let the guitars add fullness without overshadowing or even really being heard in such a way that you could tell that they were there.

Lyor smiled a wicked smile. "Xavi, I'm going to say something I almost never say after one edit. That was perfect. Mercedes, you caught the pain and the sorrow of that place and time so strongly, I almost want to know what on earth was happening to make you write such a sad song. I won't ask, of course, but I must say that will be the second single off the album. Deborah, start trying to come up with a video concept."

ANSANE had been listening through our stash of the songs we'd written over the previous six months and they picked the one they wanted to help us record as their test session. While we'd been working with Xavi, they had worked out the bass line and the beat mix they felt would work best with the song. They sent us out to eat and when we got back an hour later they had trumpeters, saxophonists and a few other musicians assembled and learning the music by ear from the simple track Sam, Noah and I had recorded in the den at the Mays house when we were in LA. The song had been spawned by the night the LAPD had decided to harass me based solely on the color of my skin and the word of some asshole neighbor. The song itself was fun and uptempo and some of the questions asked were silly and fun, but many of them were thought provoking…or so I hoped.

The feeling in the room for the second song was totally different from the first. We were all laughing and teasing, everyone threw out their own 'shakin' my head' question. But eventually we got our asses to work. The end result was actually less raw and more polished than the slower song Xavi had done, but the nature of the song lent itself to that. This song was more pop/rock with soul than the deeper, slower song we'd done before dinner. By the time we left the studio that night it was after eleven, but we were completely satisfied with the decisions and progress we'd made. We scheduled studio time from seven in the morning until eleven at night for each of the next six Saturdays, alternating between Xavi and ANSANE. Despite the lateness of the time we returned to the house, Sam, Noah and I made love until we fell asleep wrapped in each other's arms.

Sunday morning we had planned to go to church all together, but Sam got a call from the Manhattan BMG office at like six in the morning. They needed a blonde male model for some underwear ads for Vogue, and the guy they had scheduled had gotten into a car accident on his way to the shoot. Since Goykhman knew that Sam and Puck were in New York, he'd asked for Sam as the replacement. They offered him five grand for the day if he would help them out. There was no way that Sam wasn't going to do it. Goykhman had kept them in work in Chicago and he was very kind to them, plus they were still technically under contract until the following June so Sam got up, showered and took the train down to the Central Park shoot.

With Sam working, Puck decided to sleep in. Unfortunately, while the extra sleep might have been nice, I found that I just couldn't roll back over and go back to sleep. I was feeling so very blessed I had to go and praise the Lord. At seven I got up and showered away the soreness that the long day and night had caused in my legs, hips and feet. I ran through my usual morning hygiene and beauty rituals and donned a pair of black silk panties and a sturdy but pretty black bra. A shaper slip went into place before I pulled on a really conservative black lace over nude linen A-line dress with a higher scoop collar and cap sleeves. I kept my makeup very light just lining my eyes and lips and a clear gloss. I put on the cross my daddy had given me the fall before and platinum knot stud earrings. I grabbed a purple leather handbag and stuffed in my wallet, cell phone and tucked in my bible as well. My feet were slipped into purple ballet flats; I dropped a kiss on Noah's sleeping cheek and headed out.

The pastor at my church back home had given my mother the name of several churches, with clergy he knew or knew of. Pastors who wouldn't be bothered by the appearance of our thruple in the pews of their church. That morning I decided to take the train further up into Harlem to St. Mark's United Methodist Church. The church was old, having been established in the late eighteen hundreds. The congregation was led by a female pastor. Rev. Jermin gave a beautiful sermon on the joy to be found in a good relationship with God and how to define the relationship not by talking about living a Christ centered life, but by our actions and tolerance and love of our fellow man. I found that I really enjoyed her sermon, but the choir was, well, it was very quiet. I knew that I wouldn't have the time to join it so I shouldn't complain, but I knew I would need to keep looking for another church home.

When I got home from church, Puck was awake and playing Call of Duty with Artie over in his Gamer's Den so I was able to get some time to myself. As much as I loved my men, there were times that I really just needed peace and quiet. Time alone with my thoughts. I put on my headphones and just sat in the center of the bed and tried to figure out if we were on the right path. I loved Sam and Noah and I knew that we were good on the relationship front. But I found that I was very, very worried about the meeting that was coming up with the image and marketing people from the label. It had been a battle to become truly comfortable in my own skin, secure in the love of those around me. The very last thing I wanted was to find that I was weak enough to allow people who knew nothing about who I really was to undermine or wreak havoc on all the hard work that had been done in the last year and a half.

* * *

><p>Well Ladies and Gentlemen,<p>

I hope that you are all still enjoying the Learning French Series. Here is the newest installment.  
>I'll let you figure out for yourselves what the title means.<p>

Let me know if you are. I'm also taking part in a writing event called Out With A (Big) Bang over at AO3.

Review and let me know which other gleeks you want a peek into their college lives. Every other Chapter I will include the point of view of one of the New Directions who aren't in NYC. Probably won't focus much attention on the season 4 new kids other than Jake and maybe Unique. I didn't watch so I don't know them well enough to write them.

Okay enough of my chattering. Read & Review. Thanks in advance for all the review love.

TTFN,  
>Anni<p> 


	2. You and I & Caught Out There

**Les Âmes Soeurs**  
>AnniKay<p>

Sam/Mercedes/Puck  
>Disclaimer: I own Nothing…Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennen along with Fox and others own this fandom and all the characters there in…Anything you recognize obviously belongs to them<br>******THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!******

**Special thanks to KayBee80 & Illiandyanndra who have been Beta rock stars for all of my ten stories**

**Summary: **The gang has moved to New York. College and career are on the horizon…Are the Original New Directions ready for what all the future holds?

*****Want to see the finishes and details for the Brownstone…Check out Illy's Flicker Account.

*****Want to see the 'face claims' or, as I call it, the Casting Call for the OCs…Check out The Illy and Anni Yahoo Group.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>  
><strong>You &amp; I (Nobody in the World), John Legend<br>**_Sam PoV_

When you're juggling what basically amounts to one and a half or two full course loads, a full time job, a part time, well… whatever they call my and Puck's on call status at BMG and putting I the work to maintain a major, life lasting relationship as well as trying to manage the transition from kid to adult, scheduling and routines quickly become your best friends. Part of that was simply doing things like homework and note revision before we left campus, after all that's where the libraries were and they had a special tutorial section for people with dyslexia and that helped me a lot. Granted what really helped was that my humanities professor was huge into in class discussions and not so big into 'testing our regurgitation abilities' as she put it. My English professor was cool too. He had a whole boat load of 'systemic and individualized tools' that helped me keep up with all the reading I had to do for his class. My other three Columbia classes were a freshman science class, its lab and a one hundred level architecture class. I only had two full classes and a seminar at Juilliard, but the added travel time in the middle of my day was so killer.

Still Mercy's gift with organization was a blessing. She got Noah and me into a routine and to be honest, if I'd known her as a freshman, I probably wouldn't have worries about getting into college so much. My grades would have been tons better. Besides when me and Puck had all our assignments done before we got home in the evenings, Mercy rewarded us with a before dinner orgasm… delivered in any method of our choosing. I think my favorite were the times when she got totally naked in the middle of our bedroom floor and sucked us off. God, I loved that woman.

Despite being eight of us in the house, we all ate our meals at different times during the week. Breakfast and lunch were most often eaten on campus or at one of the restaurants near either Columbia or Juilliard or NYU or NYADA or Tisch. But we all ate dinner at home, just at different times. So there were usually shifts of cooking except the two or three days a week Mercedes or Kurt did one of their awesome crockpot meals. No matter who cooked the last meal, they always left a plate for Kurt in the microwave. He usually didn't make it home until last even on his early days. Granted his early days still started around eight and ended after seven, but then again his long days lasted until almost ten. He'd have probably been burnt out before KAMA's first studio session, but he was just so damn happy to be doing what he loved, all of it…it didn't seem like he even got truly tired.

Monday nights, Mercy, Puck and I usually had dinner before seven. Then we had our dedicated SKYPE calls with the parents, Tessa, and Triple S. As I cleaned up the kitchen, I couldn't help but think that that Monday, the calls were even more important. Something was off with Mercy. Puck and I agreed that she was worried about the meeting with the image and marketing consultants the next day. We just disagreed about why she was freaking out. I pretty much thought it was for the same reason I was concerned. It kind of sucked that we had to take a day off from classes that early in the semester, but it had to be done. Thankfully we were still far enough out from exams that we should not be too inconvenienced. I already had a dedicated note taker for each class as part of my dyslexia accommodations. Mercy had bonded with a really quiet guy that had agreed to take notes for her in the two classes she had at Columbia on Wednesdays. She had also set things up with one of the girls in her rhythm and performance class at Juilliard. Puck had already charmed half his classes into love with him. He would have no problem getting the notes he missed.

Noah's theory on why Mercy was retreating into her own head was more troubling. The worse part was that it was probably also the correct one. He figured that she was worried about what the consultants would have to say about the fact that she wasn't a size nothing and that the three of us were not going to compromise on being exactly who we are. Puck and I weren't gonna hide that we loved her nor were we going to hide that we loved each other. We sure as hell weren't going to let anyone try to Sue Sylvester our girl. Hell, even Sue Sylvester didn't try to force Mercy to lose weight senior year. I shook my head and ran up to grab my tablet. It was my turn to call the Jones' home computer and I wanted to talk with Momma-Dani and Becs and Momma before we joined the others in the family room. I was happy to see that the Joneses were already logged in. Chances were good that meant at least Mom and Mrs. Dani would be available. As soon as they picked up, and I finished cooing and making funny faces at Amaea and Amara in their laps…at five months, the twins were already sitting up and babbling back and making sounds that almost sounded like they were calling me Bubba…I told mom how beautiful she looked and teased her asking if she was sure that it was just one boy because she looked like she had when she was carrying the twins. With the civilities out of the way, I laid the problem I was currently wrestling with at their feet.

Momma-Dani and Momma were both quiet for a long moment. "Sammy…this time, I think you're going to have to let MeDe figure things out on her own. I know that you and Noah love her and want to take care of her, but there are some battles a person has to fight alone." Momma finally answered.

"But, I can tell you that to me it sounds like my daughter is gearing up for a fight, not getting trapped in her own head." Dani said with a little grin. "Look, I've had a bad feeling about this whole image consultant thing since the minute you told me about the meeting. I think MeDe has too. She's not stupid and only a little naïve. Trust in her, Sam; trust her to be strong. She is, don't doubt it. Be there to back her up, but don't try to fight the fight for her."

"I know…I know you're right. But I just…Everything is going so well. I don't want her hurt. I really don't want her to go back to that place she told me she was in when she was letting Coach Sylvester's weight loss juice almost kill her." I groaned. "I just…is it stupid to want to protect the people I love?"

Both moms chuckled at me. "It's not stupid." My mom told me with a smile. "But it can be insulting."

I must have looked at them like they had lost their minds. So after they finished laughing at me again, Momma-Dani took pity on me and explained. "Sam, MeDe is a young adult, same as you. If you want to be the big protector, it's not gonna fly. She will take you to the carpet for treating her like she is you child rather than your life partner. God took the bone to create Eve from Adam's side…she is to be a helpmate and a partner, not to be ruled over like a child."

I stopped and for the first time thought about it from that point of view. "Wow…it is totally condescending to think that I have to always solve her problems."

"Yup," both mothers nodded. Maea made a sound of agreement. Mara was a little too busy trying to eat her foot to answer.

"Oh don't feel bad, Sammy. It took your father years to figure that out. It is a part of loving to want to shelter those we love from the slings and arrows of life, but you're just going to have to repress it for a while. You can let it all out over any kids you guys have in ten…twelve years." Momma told me sternly.

Momma-Dani nodded. "If it doesn't get on MeDe's nerves too bad you might be able to bring it out when she's pregnant. Especially with all those strangers you know are gonna be trying to touch her belly."

We all shared a laugh at that. We knew how Mercedes felt about strangers touching her. "Thanks Moms." I felt a lot better. "I'd better get downstairs; Mercy and Puck are probably on with the others by now."

"I think I hear your dad talking with them on Benton's iPad. Tessa is out with Aidan. She said to tell you guys hi, but with Friday night games, they had to move one date night to Monday." Momma said with a laugh. "It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Stevie and Ethan have Cub Scouts on Monday evenings."

"Of course not…nothing at all." I laughed as I headed down to the family room. "Soon as I sat down on the couch bracketing Mercy between me and Noah, I realized that the Moms had been right. Puck was talking to Stevie, Stacey and Sarah while Mercy was telling the dads about the producers we'd selected. Puck wanted his chance to talk to Momma and Momma-Dani so he traded tablets with me as soon as I finished my conversation with them.

"So Sammy," Stevie started as soon as my face filled the screen. "Puck said you guys had a cool time in the studio." He laughed like a hyena at the thought that he knew somebody who recorded something in a real studio. "Is it how you thought it was going to be?"

"I don't know. There are a lot more parts to it than I ever thought. The way they lay the tracks…it's like they do everything in layers. So I guess not. But it makes more sense now how two people can do a song together without even being on the same coast."

I guess they liked my answer fine. The next thing I knew, Stacey filled their camera, "Stevie has a girlfriend." She informed me smugly.

"Oh really." I drawled with avid interest.

"Her name is Bellatrix." She further supplied.

I looked at her like she had grown another head. "Is she evil, or crazy or is she crazy evil?"

Stevie pushed Stacey over so that he could be seen as well. He rolled his eyes. "Despite her name, she isn't crazy. She isn't evil. And she isn't my girlfriend. She's just a girl I know from last year who's in my class this year."

"That you sit with all day, every day, even at lunch." Stacey said smugly.

Sarah pointed out. "A girl you have admitted to thinking is cute."

Stevie gave both girls a look that promised retribution as soon as he could wreak it. "I like talking to her-most of the time- and yeah, she is cute." Then he totally took a page from Uncle Saul or Bubbie's book, an admission that didn't actually admit anything. "I'm not saying that she might not be my girlfriend at some point in life, but for right now she is my friend who happens to be a girl."

"Good enough." I said to further close that type. Turning the tables I asked with an innocent smile. "So Stevie…are Stacey or Sarah hanging out with anybody new…a new somebody who might or might not be male?"

"Naw…no body new. Stacey and Evan are in the same class…but I don't see them hanging out with each other at school."

"Evan doesn't like it when the other boys pick on him for talking to a girl." Stacey informed me quietly. "So we play together at home, but we don't really say much to each other at school. It's easier on him."

"Wow. I thought by fourth grade they were beyond that stupid stuff. That was about the time I started noticing Moesha Jackson. She had the prettiest eyes in the class. And her smile was almost as pretty as Mercy's."

Sarah blushed. "I had my first crush in third grade. It was on Noah's friend Matt…Matt Rutherford. He was cute and hot at the same time."

Mercy leaned over from where she was finishing up with the Dads. "Knew you had good taste, Sarah…Matt was definitely a hottie."

"Hold up…who's Matt?" I said defensively.

Puck looked up. "Matt was Mercedes first dedicated dance partner in glee. The light skinned dude that I showed you in that first New Direction's picture. He was my boy, but he moved to VA right before you moved to Lima. You've seen him on our facebook pages." He said in a way that I wasn't sure if he was soothing my ruffled feathers or if he was teasing me into showing my ass.

Either way I got sheepish and I felt the blush taking over my face. "Oh…cool." I stammered much to the amusement of all. I hurriedly ran through the rest of the conversation with Triple S. Finding out that Sarah and Stacey were still doing the Junior Cheerios and Stevie and Evan were still doing the Junior Titans even though they had totally missed the camps. They loved it. Sarah was a little worried because when she entered the sixth grade she would have to cheerlead with the William Henry Harrison Middle School Cougar Cheer squad. The coach for the middle school was apparently a hippy type and Sue was convinced that the woman would ruin her future Cheerio Captain. They told us all about Jean, Coach Sylvester's three month old daughter who…according to Coach Sylvester…was already a better cheerleader than most of the squad. Stacey talked all about the family plans for Thanksgiving. Then it was my turn with the dads who just reminded me that I should concentrate on being myself at the meeting the next day.

We talked with our family on skype until our tablets signaled that they needed to be charged. It was cool being independent…sort of…and on our own…mostly. But that sure as hell didn't mean that we didn't miss our family back home. On the way up the stairs, Mercy stopped on the second floor and grabbed Kurt to force him to help her pick the perfect outfit for our meeting the next day. It took them thirty minutes to tell Puck and I what they thought we should wear, another thirty for us to reach a compromise that we could all live with and then a grand total of seven…seven minutes for Kurt to declare that Mercy's choice was inspired and flawless. I loved our woman and I cared for her bestie, but times like that they drove me nuts and not in a good way.

We showered and made slow, sweet love to our woman. We drove her out of her mind trying to show her with every touch, every caress, every lick, every stroke how much she meant to us, how beautiful and sexy she was to us. Finally we fell asleep totally smelling like sex and each other. The next morning we woke up at our usual time and went downstairs ti our home gym. It really needed a cool name. I mean we had a kick ass work out room. It in no way resembleled a closet with a treadmill and a thighmaster that most people thought of when they heard the words 'home gym', Since we weren't in as big a rush, Puck and I did an extra rep on each of the machines we regularly used. Mercy did a full round of yoga before and after she spent some time on the treadclimber and the gazelle. I noticed that she had gotten into yoga for the increase in flexibility and stamina but I knew that she also loved its ability to help her with getting centered and her deep breathing. Her doing extra time on the yoga mat meant that she was pretty much dreading the meeting.

We were due at the Warner offices by ten, so as soon as we finished our work outs, we went down to the completely empty kitchen. The house was really quiet without anybody there, but everyone else had left for their classes. Working together we had breakfast assembled and on the table in fifteen minutes. As we ate, I noticed that we were pretty quiet. Then I noticed Noah noticing it as well. He and I exchanged speaking glances. Without words, we decided that the best thing we could do was to help Mercy find her happy place, so we sent her up to start getting ready, while we cleared away our plates and started the dishwasher with all the pots and dishes that had been used by the eight of us this morning. Then me and Puck hurried up to our room and surprised our woman in the shower. Even with her hair already up in her curlers and wearing a silly looking shower cap, she was still the sexiest woman I knew and the only one I wanted.

I don't know if it was a woman thing, but Mercedes Jones had always had an amazing ability to use getting dressed to achieve an almost Zen like state. For some reason watching her that morning reminded me of the scripture that talks about putting on the full armor of God. Mercy was very deliberate in getting ready for whatever the day threw at her. She started with the lotion. This one was unscented, which meant…yup, as soon as Puck and I finished helping her moisturize her back and ass, she spritzed on the Hermes perfume Uncle Saul had given her for Christmas. Taking her hint, Puck and I used our Christmas gifts from Saul too, as we quickly threw on our clothes. By the time Puck was tricked out in a pair of dark wash, boot cut jeans, black v-neck tee shirt, burgundy tropical wool slim fit vest and matching blazer, some cool black Vans, I was slipping my feet into some newer than any of the rest I owned black Converse All-Stars having gotten dressed in a black v-neck pullover with white trim at the collar, a gray military cut Kenneth Cole Reaction blazer and black straight leg jeans. Mercedes however had only put on a pretty darker pink lace bra that seemed to have her beautiful tits trapped despite the fact that they were trying to escape with every breath she took. Her panties matched, but they too looked like they were barely successful in containing her gorgeous ass.

She stood at her vanity and did her hair and makeup while Noah and I reminded each other that we couldn't just blow off the meeting in order to fuck our girl until she couldn't even move let alone tempt us like that. When she turned back to us, big curls framed her face. Her big, beautiful eyes looked even prettier than usual, a steely glint only enhancing her light makeup. Her full, suckable lips were lined in a deep wine and glossed in one of her sheer glosses that hinted at a shade of pink that was almost mirrored in her lingerie. Mercy was so in her zone she didn't even notice the lust in our eyes as we watched her pack her touchup things in her makeup bag, which then went with her phone, tablet, wallet and some other things into her black Guess Tote bag. I loved the purses that had their names on them. It made it so much easier when she sent us to get them for her or something. The tote also housed the ridiculously sexy and high as hell sandals…which were really just a strap of silver snake skin over her foot right behind her toes, and a few black and silver straps around her ankles that were attached to a three and half inch, black, skinny stilt she called heels. She would wear a pair of little ballet flats until we got to our destination and then change shoes before we went into the building. Only after her purse was packed and her flats waiting on her next to her purple chair did she put on the black silky, crop wide leg jumpsuit. The suit had a band collar and then a semi-sheer panel over her breast and upper back. The panel buttoned down to where it ran into the regular black silk and on down to the banded waist before falling in wide leg pants to hit her about mid-calf. She stood in the cheval glass for a long moment checking her appearance over one last time. Seeming satisfied, we were finally able to head out right around nine.

The train gods were on our side and we arrived at Warner's new Time Square offices with about twenty minutes to spare. Puck and I took turns supporting Mercy as she quickly changed to her heels, then we entered the elevator with our heads held high. The receptionist had been expecting us. It was kind of weird. She greeted up by name before we could even say more than good morning. Taking us up a few floors, she showed us to a medium sized conference room that looked like something right off of a TV Show or out of an architectural magazine. The room only had two real, like made with wood studs and drywall, walls and those were painted a deeper beige color and both were highlighted with black and white abstract art paintings. One held a knee height, nine door console that went almost across the whole wall. The cupboards had two big black urns holding bamboo decorating the top. The other wall-wall was similarly 'decorated' with a tall, long, slim console table. Only then did I notice that above the facing wall there was a strip in the ceiling that looked like a projector screen could come down from it.

We were seated at a light wood, shiny and sleek rectangular conference table that had great, really strong lines and elegant in its simplicity. The chairs were the newest super modern executive office chairs that had arms and wheels and black and chrome coloring. They weren't as comfortable as the ones in Mr. Lyor's office had been…but they weren't bad. There were five chairs on either side of the table so we chose to take the three center ones on the side of the table that faced the floor to ceiling windows looking out on Time Square. Our backs were set towards the floor to ceiling tempered glass that faced out on the conference room next door. The receptionist offered us coffee, a wide selection of teas and sodas. We asked her for some water only to find out that she had a whole selection of choices for that too. Hell, I didn't even recognize most of the brand names she said. Thankfully, Ms. Jergens…Deborah…came in with the two consultants and asked that the receptionist bring us all bottles of Evian and glasses of ice.

Once their party was seated in the three center seats facing us, Deborah introduced us to the image consultant. Anika Rawlins was a beautiful woman…tall and thin…she actually made me think of a black Cameron Diaz. Her ebony skin was even darker than Mercy's chocolate tone. Her eyes were the same dark chocolate brown, but they were so damn could they could have frozen the warmest heart. She looked every inch the big city image consultant. Her hair was cut very short, but too long to call a pixie cut. Her makeup was well applied in what I knew Mercedes and Kurt called a 'day look', barely there eye makeup with a light pop of color on her lips. Man since living with Mercy, Kurt and Blaine…Puck and I have learned way too much about that stuff.

Ms. Rawlins was outfitted in a sharply tailored, corporate day dress. The dress was almost completely black, but softened with cream colored panels down the sides. It probably would have hit a shorter woman, like Mercy, at the knees, but it hit Ms. Rawlins about three inches higher. Like Mercy's jumpsuit, her dress was belted at the waist and she wore diamond solitaire earrings, but her earrings were round while Mercedes' were square cut. Ms. Rawlins completed her look with sky high, two tone, beige and black peek toe sandals. Her greeting was pretty formal and you could tell that she was mentally stripping us down to find any weakness she could exploit.

Her companion, the marketing consultant was a very dark haired, dark eyed white guy. He stood and shook hands with us greeting us warmly with a smooth British accent. He was wearing a charcoal gray, two button suit with a crisp white shirt and purple tie. His black loafers were so shiny if I didn't know better I'd have assumed they were patent leather, his belt matched perfectly. "Christophe Hamilton. I must say it is nice to meet you…nut you three have given us chaps down in marketing something of a dilemma. Americans are quite puritanical you know. Their rock stars being violent domestic abusers, that they can handle; out of control drug addicts, they can forgive…but polyamory…that they have trouble with." He told us with a grin.

"Yeah well, anyone who doesn't like it can suck my balls." Puck said giving both Christophe and Ms. Rawlins hard looks.

Deborah hid a smile. She had or was dating Bubbie Ruth, or at least hanging out with her enough that Puck's comment wasn't a surprise at all. "I am sure that the marketing department has come up with a wonderful way to spin everything so that you do not have to bare your testicles to the mouths of half the country."

"Especially since those belong to Sam and me." Mercy teased.

"Oh we certainly have." Christophe assured us. "There have been several online blogs by polyamorous homes for the last several years. Recently our department has helped those blogs start to trend and gain more national attention. We've even managed to aim one of the Huffington Post contributing writers at a triad living in Washington State. With the popularity of several television shows that show polygamist households like Sister Wives and Big Love have already gotten the conversation started. We are already paving the path for your interviews during the SongBird soundtrack promotional event the Tuesday before Thanksgiving."

Deborah nodded. "Yes, talks are still underway to see which song will be the first single, but we do know that it will be one of your duets with Jill Scott, Mercedes. Also we'll need to arrange a day in the next few weeks to get you in for some promotional shots."

We nodded and Mercy pulled out her tablet to make a note of the November date and to start trying to figure out when she could manage the promo pics. Christophe took back up where he'd left off. "To be honest, the ladies in the department love the whole soulmate angle you three mentioned to Lyor. He suggested that we play up the whole high school sweethearts willing to put in the work to still be together for the rest of their lives. He was completely right; the test market audience thoroughly ate it up."

"The country is ready for another good love story. It's been years since Ozzy and Sharon or Faith and Tim or Trisha and Garth. I truly think that we can play that up and while you three may not become America's Sweethearts immediately…but you're probably going to be too edgy for that anyway." Deborah smiled reassuringly.

"You three should play very well with the Millennials and your age group…some parents will not want their younger kids exposed to your 'alternative lifestyle' but controversy sells." Christophe acknowledged. "We've had our graphic designers come up with a few choice for the logo for your group name…KAMA. In bold black we have the word in a bold, new FUNK typeset on a field of royal purple, or red, white, blue, green or gunmetal gray. Though it looks best, to me, on the purple and the gray." He showed us each of the different colors on his iPad and Puck and I agreed that purple or gray would be our choices too.

"I was originally going to say that I liked the purple best but that gray under the black is really kind of badass." Mercy told him surprising me a little. "Would there be any way to make the background reflective or shimmery or something?"

"Cede…two of us are dudes." Puck whined.

"Actually…I kind of like that thought. Maybe like the holographic kind of reflective." I added my two cent. "Or maybe the field isn't one color…maybe it is purple which fades into the gray and then back into the purple."

Christophe made a note on his pad. "That's not bad…We'll see what we can work out."

Deborah smiled. "That's the bulk of Christophe's info. Anika, let's get started with you and then we'll go to lunch and finish up afterwards if we need to. That way Mercedes, Sam and Noah can make it to their afternoon classes if we wrap up early enough."

Anika nodded. "Very well. Sam shall we start with you. You present well. Your hair color is great. Your colorist should be commended. However, you look like you stole a lesbian's haircut. It suits your face but is way too Beiber. Give me your class schedule and I will make you an appointment at Fleishman's Midtown West location."

"I was actually thinking of growing it long, really long…like Adrian Paul first season of Highlander or Lieutenant Worf season seven Next Generation or all seasons of DS Nine." I said keeping my face innocent. I don't think I would ever really want my hair that long, but something made me want to irritate the woman.

For a moment she was confused, but then she pulled out her iPad and looked up the references I had given her. It had totally worked she looked like she had swallowed a prune with the pit still inside. "While that might have worked for a rock or country star thirty years ago, it is not at all on trend in two thousand thirteen." She said as if that were the final word on the subject. "Noah, you seem to think that you've got the whole rebel thing happening, but it's time that you start to do that through fashion and rid yourself of that antiquated nod to punk on your head. Also…I think that as far as fashion goes, the two of you could benefit from separate closets so that Sam doesn't grab Noah's things by accident again…you two look like you switched clothes to try and mess up my advising."

"We don't even wear the same size." Puck rolled his eyes. "I'm not ready to give up my 'hawk…it's a big part of who I am. If an Ivy League college interviewer didn't mind it…why do you?"

"It won't translate well to middle America." She answered.

"Bullshit. We come from middle America…it got me all kinds of ass back home." Puck's wicked grin gave a real view into his ass getting ability.

"I'm sure that your lovers find you even more handsome without it." Anika tried to manipulate Puck into agreeing to her way of thinking.

I shrugged. "I've never actually seen him without it. I do think he is hot with it though."

Mercedes smiled. "Puck hated not having his 'hawk…but Lord knows I'd be lying if I didn't admit that he is even hotter with a really short cut all over."

He leaned over and kissed our girl. "You helped me get my mojo back though. You were the best girlfriend I had ever had back then and you didn't even let me get that far with you."

"Okay…now I'm a little bit jealous that Mercy has seen you without it and I haven't. So, I'll make you a deal. Cut it off, if you still hate not having it, you can grow it back. If you cut yours, I'll get my hair cut like Ms. Rawlins thinks I should too." I made the gesture hoping that we could move on.

Happy to have gotten her way, at least temporarily, Anika looked over her notes and continued. "We'll need to make an appointment to have you three go shopping with me." she pulled up some sketches. "I believe that Sam should be dressed more All-American, boy next door… like a trendier version of Niall Horan. Puck, your look should lean more towards Lenny Kravitz meets Jared Leto."

Puck and I looked at each other over Mercy's bowed head. "So you want me to shave my head and dress like a knock off Russell Brand?" he asked for clarification. "Maybe you should move on to Mercedes so that I have time to digest." His sarcasm was damn near dripping off that last sentence.

Anika actually seemed to think he really was taking her advice under consideration. "That is a good idea. Mercedes, Your style is nice. I do like your outfit, hair and makeup. If you dress like this for a business casual look, and know how to dress appropriately for a much more formal occasion then we will have no problem with your clothes. Though we do still need to shop together so that I can make sure that your choices are both on trend and correct for you and the image we want to project. It has been brought to my attention that Mr. Cohen has assured you that you will not need to lose any weight, but to be perfectly honest that is unrealistic. You are what? An eighteen…twenty? In this industry a size eight to ten is considered plus size. Beyond that your skin is far too dark, and your nose…would you be willing to consider rhinoplasty?"

"Oh hell to the no. My ass is not about to be no Little Kim." Mercedes said with a fierce growl.

"I'm simply pointing out that your nose and skin color will keep you from mainstream success." Anika said as if she were saying that the sky was blue. "Add in your size…"

"I'm the size I'm supposed to be, a fourteen or a sixteen if it's cut small." Mercedes told her. Baby's voice was strong and stern. "What our society seems to have forgotten is that not every person is supposed to be a size zero. I'm healthy. My doctors feel that I am at a good weight for me. I refuse to hurt my body, health and spirit for the sake of other people's vanity. Oh and let me go on record right now…I'm not dressing like I have no home training either. There will never come a time when the world will see me naked, that blessing is reserved for the men on either side of me. Further, for your image consulting friends, before they come up with some sure fire 'perfect image'…I'm not ghetto…I've never been to the ghetto, in fact, I stay the fuck up out the ghetto…so there won't be any hoodrat look either. What I will be doing is presenting an image real girls can look up to and emulate. I will maintain a healthy size for myself and portray a healthy lifestyle for our fans. I will dress well, because I really like fashion. I will dress with sense and sanity because I have four younger sisters and a younger brother at home that I want to grow up to respect themselves."

Puck chuckled. "Do you know why so few people have respect for other people? It's because they've stopped respecting themselves. Little boys want to grow up to be like Justin Bieber, little girls want to grow up to be the Kardashian sisters…what the fuck happened to having real role models? I've respected Mercedes Jones more than any other woman I knew other than my mom and Bubbie since we were in the sixth grade. Teachers used to ask me how I could treat my classmates like they were just conquests to be made…that was easy to do because all the other girls around us had no respect for themselves. Why the hell would I treat them like ladies when they were nothing but whores in training? But that shit wasn't a Lima phenomenon…that shit was a nationwide problem. At thirteen, I was running game and banging twenty something chicks here when I would visit my family. They didn't respect themselves any more than the young chicks back home. Cede wants to do something about that shit. She wants to be a beacon of sanity to hopefully help. Help us help these kids. Something tells me that we'll make money hand over fist."

"America is supposed to be a melting pot…yet currently our country is actually just a whole bunch of interwoven conclaves. For the most part black people only live around other black people, the same with Asians, whites, and all the different kinds of Hispanics. I think that the three of us are a pretty damn good example of what the new American dream should and can look like." Mercedes smirked. "We have a lot to offer and could definitely make Warner a mint…but not if you water us down and make us just like everyone else. Gaga makes money because she stands out. Katy Perry, same thing. We will do the same…just do it better."

Anika leaned forward in her chair. "How do you plan to do that?"

Mercedes laughed. "We're going to go the exact opposite of where most current music artist go. Take it back to being all about the music. I'm not saying that we will never do songs written by others, but every album will have the sound and feel of the three of us. Think Taylor Swift with all the whining and complaining about our love life or lack thereof. There will be songs that make you laugh, cry, reminisce…it will be what music is supposed to be…invocative. Our image, we will be a blend of the real authenticity people associate with country artists, the classy, sexy, coolness people associated with the R&B artist of the nineties, and the aloof, awe inspiring wickedness people used to associate with rock stars. We've gonna teach kids to want to be more not by doing PSAs or acting like we're in a Saturday morning very special episode…but just by being exactly who we are and who we were raised to be."

I nodded. "Kids became little monsters because Gaga inspired them…let's see what kind of impact KAMA can have?"

"And that image works with your name…which is all about sex and desire and the first word of the Kama Sutra…how?" Anika said smarmily.

I felt rather than saw Mercedes roll her eyes. "Desire isn't a bad thing. Everyone has sex. The whole Madonna-Whore complex has to die. Our name doesn't automatically preclude us from being good role models…but I'm willing to bet that most people in this country aren't going to have the same issue you're trying to create to get me to bow to your bullshit."

"Then why am I even here?" Ms. Rawlins snarked.

"Let's just be real, you're here because the rest of the Image department sent you so that I couldn't claim that the advice to change my nose and drop weight and that my skin color was too dark and I was just all around too black was racism. They played you psychology." Mercedes told her with a wry grin. "Now, Ms. Rawlins, that you have towed the party line and told me that I need to change everything that makes me me in order to be a success in this business…are you ready to tell us what you really think so we can get some shit done today?"

Damn my woman is amazing. Deborah, Christope, Anika and the three of us spent the rest of the morning working on a plan to do way more than I ever thought possible for three kids from Lima who liked to sing.

**Caught Out There (Kelis)**  
><em>Lauren Pov<em>

It seemed like time flew after move in day and before I knew it, I had survived the first month of college. I'd met and bonded with some new people. I had learned a lot in even my basic, core curriculum classes. I'd gotten into a good routine with working out and practice and homework and classes. But for all of that I was feeling very, very horny. Finn and I were both working our asses off so hard to make sure that we kept out grades up and made the strides our coaches wanted from and expected of us. We didn't even get to see each other at all Labor Day weekend. The football coach had held a minicamp from after classes on Friday until basically right before classes started Tuesday morning. By the third weekend of September, it seemed like the only time we saw each other was when we were working out or doing homework. Which was fine it gave us time to be together and talk and everything…but damn a girl had needs.

Little did I know that Finn was feeling the exact same way. So that Saturday after he was released after the Buckeyes versus Florida A&M game, he found texted me and told me to meet him in a different spot from where we usually met after the games. Rather than meeting near the concession stand so Finn could get a corn dog before they closed down completely, he asked me to meet him at the parking lot. He had showered and was dressed in one of his 'I'm on a date' shirt rather than his usual post game track suit. He'd gotten Vince to drive his truck over so he could surprise me after the game. "Some of the juniors and seniors on the team were telling me about a great BBQ place near campus. I was hoping that you might want to go with me."

I couldn't help but smile. "I'd love to."

He 'helped' me into the cab of the truck before going around a getting in himself. He quickly drove us to Ray Ray's Hog Pit. Just stepping inside I knew I'd found my new favorite restaurant. Finn felt the same way. "I think I'm gonna love this place, but Kurt would hate it." he chuckled.

"Naw, he'd grouse and complain about the lack of ambience until he tasted it and then he and Cedes would go to work trying to figure out everything the guy did to the food to make it taste so good, and the exact contents of the BBQ sauce." I shot back.

The ordering process wasn't as bad as the Soup Nazi on Seinfield, but they weren't playing around. "What'cha want?" the old black man behind the counter asked quickly.

Finn and I exchanged a look. "Give us two of whatever you think is the best?" he finally said honestly. "This is our first time, so we're trusting your judgment."

"Alright kids, plant your butts at that table over yonder and we'll see about getting your bellies filled." He said giving us a smile that was missing more teeth than it actually showed, but we followed his directions to the letter.

"I know we see each other every day, but I miss this. Just you and me. no homework, or notes…no papers or weights or anything." Finn said with a smile.

With a smile I acknowledged, "I know what you mean. I was thinking earlier that it was cool that we made sure we spent time together, but we haven't had time to do more than catch a quick make out session since our first weekend here."

Finn looked around and blushed deeply as he nodded. "As much as I've missed one on one non studying time with you, Finnie has missed Ma'am at least twice as much." He looked guilty. "Is that wrong?"

I shrugged. "I'm good with that." I told him with a smile. "Think Vince will cover for you tonight? Ma'am could do a lot with her Finnie over night."

"Coach said that we were off for the rest of the weekend. We have a check in Monday morning, but he is not doing curfew this weekend."

"That's not a bad reward for winning three of your last four games."

He nodded. "Yup and Coach says if I can get up to twenty reps at 225, then he'll give me some field time when we play Northwestern."

"That's awesome." I shouted. "Freshmen almost never get field time."

"True, but with Barrett's elbow giving him trouble and Collier out for six weeks while his leg heals…there aren't any sophomore QBs to give field time and supposedly the Northwestern team has been up against Miller so much they know him. The thought is that if we give them a fresh face, maybe we can knock them off their game."

"Not a bad idea. Just kind of sucks that it's not gonna be a home game." I told him. But before he could say anything, our food arrived. The old man had done us right. He'd created a sample plate. We each had half a beef brisket sandwich, half a pulled pork sandwich, three baby back and three spare ribs, and a selection of the sides, so small portions of the greens, macaroni and cheese, slaw and baked beans. The food was great, every piece of meat so tender it was almost melting in our mouths. The sides were pretty damn good too. If we'd never had Mrs. Danica's greens or Mrs. Gabby's mac and cheese, I'd have said they were the best I'd ever had.

When we left there, we were hella full and had to go boxes. The drive back to campus was filled with anticipation like back when we were home trying to get our time in between school and when our parents got off from work. It was a little strange to that that we were at the same level of 'oh my God, we have time to be our real selves' as we would have been before graduation…but that was exactly where we were that night. We made it back to campus in record time. As soon as we stepped foot in the dorm, Finn went up to his room to change and we agreed to meet in my room ten minutes later. While I was alone, I quickly set the scene for our play.

Granted it didn't take me long. During move in, I'd set everything up to make the most of our freedom whenever we could. It was a simple matter to turn on my lamps rather than the over head light and attach my cuffs to the, thankfully, sturdy if smaller than we were used to bed frame. I used most of the time to strap myself into one of my black bustiers and donned a pair of thighs and my Ma'am boots. When Finn knocked on the door, I was ready. I stood to the side, shadowed just in case it wasn't him, and commanded that he enter.

Just as I had taken the time to get myself into my 'Ma'am' head space, so too had my boyfriend. The person who entered walked in just far enough to close and lock the door behind him. Locking out the sounds of the celebration that always rocked our dorm after a home game win…the same sounds that would swallow up any that might clue my floor mates in on what Finn and I were really like. Finnie stood there, stripped bare to the waist, wearing only the dark wash jeans he'd worn on our date. His shower shoes protected his feet, and his wrist cuffs and collar were dark against his sun kissed skin. Finn's shoulders, arms, chest and stomach were firmer and more defined than ever before. For the first time in weeks there was no tension in his shoulders…no stress at all held in his frame. "Come and kneel before your Mistress." I bid him.

He crossed the room with a grace few would believe and took a semi-submissive position on his knees in front of me. "Thank you Ma'am." He said quietly, his eyes locked on mine. In the midst of our moment of reconnection, it struck me how inadequate the descriptions on our driver's licenses really were. To the DMV we both had brown hair and brown eyes. But that in no way spoke to the fact that Finn's hair was ten shades darker than mine or that his liquid eyes were about three shades lighter. Shining there in his eyes were our own trifecta of emotions; trust, lust and love; the reason that his stance was only semi-submissive. I always wanted to see those feelings in my Finnie, so I modified the stance to suit us.

"Now Finnie, you've been a bad, bad boy. You've needed Ma'am and haven't said a word." I whispered into the still of the room. "Though, I suppose I've been a bad Mistress…so busy that I didn't realize how much you needed me."

Finnie shook his head solemnly. "No Ma'am…you told me when we started this that if I ever needed you to take me in hand, I should let you know. I don't think that I knew how much I needed this until I fastened on my cuffs and collar and suddenly it was like a weight I didn't even know I was carrying was gone." He confessed, exonerating both of us with his truth.

I allowed him to make me feel better and decided that he had earned something I rarely gifted him with. "I am pleased with your honesty and happy that you do not hold any resentment towards me for what is a mistake on my part." I held up a hand when he would have objected. "It was a mistake on both our parts, but my job is to see these things and watch out for you. I will be sure to make sure that I watch for the tension that being the Quarterback too long costs you. So to reward you and as a sop to my conscience, I want you to lie on the bed. Tonight, for this first orgasm, you may cum without permission and I will allow you to cum first."

Finnie nodded and scrambled into the bed happily thanking me as he went. I took a moment to make sure that my lips were glossy and red before showing him the real reason my lip stick was called blow job red. It took me about ten minutes and I realized that I was very glad that Finn's summer change of eating habits had survived the start of school. He tasted better than ever before…so much so I let him have another orgasm just for the taste of it. Of course, after he caught his breath I set him to work. I allowed him to give me three orgasms as well, but I gave him permission to do so however he wanted to. Finnie kissed me breathless, before kissing and nipping his way to my breasts and licking and teasing them through the lace of the bustier before tugging them from their silky prison and sucking them and fingering me through my first explosion of pleasure of the night. The next one came from Finnie licking and sucking my pussy until fire floated through my veins. The third soon followed. I had him pull his cock ring from the drawer next to the bed, don it and a condom, then we fucked ourselves damn near unconscious.

Sleeping two deep on the not quite full bed would have been difficult even for two people far smaller than us, but we made it work. The next morning, we separated only to shower. Once clean we vegged out in my room making out while watching movies on my Mac. There was more lovemaking, but mostly between Finn and Lauren. Though Finnie and Ma'am made their appearances again before Monday morning. Unfortunately that would need to be enough for the time being. Finn had a full course load plus football including traveling to games. My first meet wasn't until November so my own practice scheduled wasn't as crazy as it would be, but I was carrying two extra classes over full every semester so that I could graduate with two full BSs rather than having a major and a minor.

Had I realized what the world had planned for us, probably I would have kept Finn locked in Finnie mode unless he was on the field. He wouldn't have minded and probably it would have saved us each a world of heartache. Fucking cheer chicks. The only good ones are named Mercedes, Kurt, Brittany…and I guess I can add in Santana and Quinn; but like them or not both of them broads would admit they were suspect.

The next couple of weeks flew by in a haze of happiness. Since we both realized how much we needed the down time without the masks we showed the world, we reworked our study schedule to find us some time to just be. I realized that we'd been so comfortable with our clique from high school that we hadn't bothered being 'normal' around them, so the hiding at college was pretty exhausting. The change was remarkable; we felt so much better not keeping ourselves limited to what others could handle seeing. Finally having some freedom at some of the time was such a positive change it seemed to improve every area of our lives. Finn got up to the twenty reps his coach wanted and stayed there for two weeks so he got the chance to head three plays during the Northwestern game. Granted the coach put him when they were two touchdowns and a conversion down…probably thought the game was lost and Finn couldn't really mess it up worse…but Finn shocked the shit out of his coach. He was credited for the team's come back having run the ball in twice and then he threw the winning touchdown. The senior Buckeyes threw the younger crew a party to celebrate the victory. The Buckeye cheerleaders were, of course, the fucking entertainment. Most of them didn't take that phrase literally. A couple did.

When they got back Sunday evening, I was waiting to welcome him home, just as I had been there to see him off. The second I saw him, I knew that something was wrong. He was being hailed as the game's hero. ESPN had mentioned his name and called him one of the freshmen to watch…Finn should have been jubilant. Instead he looked ashamed, scared and sad. As soon as he saw me, those brown eyes clouded even further. I'd know Finn Hudson long enough to recognize that look. That was the same look he gave Crazy Berry when she found out he had lied about sleeping with Santana junior year.

As he squared his shoulders and headed my way, I had the incongruous thought 'Oh joy…at least he plans to confess'. If the look on his face hadn't clued me in, the tight, almost desperate, hug he gave me as soon as he reached me would have. "So I take it, we need to talk?" I heard myself ask even as I wondered why the hell I was making that shit easier on him. We headed to the quietest park on campus. Johnson Park was near the medical center and on Sunday's was always pretty empty. Both of us really wanted to get whatever bullshit was about to happen over with. Finn babbled on trying to explain himself for almost twenty minutes before I finally cut him off. "So what you are trying to tell me is that my darling boyfriend got so drunk he can't even figure out whether or not he fucked one of the 'wish they were Cheeri-hoes'?"

With his eyes still downcast he nodded. "When I woke up this morning, everything hurt and when I went to get out of the bed to find something to take she was in the bed with me and I still had on my boxers, but she…she didn't have on anything."

"Okay Finn…before I say anything…I want you to consider something. You're sitting there, telling me that probably you slept with somebody else, but hoping that I will forgive you. Why should I? What if I came back from a wrestling meet and said this same bullshit to you? How would you respond? How would you feel?" I took a calming breath. "Finn…you have trouble with monogamy. I knew that when I got with you. Color my ass all kinds of stupid, but I really thought that I would be different. I guess I'm just not. So look. Why don't we pull back? Maybe we can be friends for a while…see if we can maintain that. You should probably try to be single for a time. Get your head right. You can get counseling for free…cause Finn…I don't care what anyone says this need you have to fuck shit up in your life when things are going good…you need to get help with that."

I stood o walk away before I gave in to the urge to punch him or something even more violent when he called out to me. "If I go to the counselors, can't we stay together…work on this together?"

"No." I said with total, brutal and complete honesty. "I don't trust you any more Finn. At this point even if I found out that you didn't fuck some random cheer chick, I don't trust you not to be enough of a dumbass that you end up in this same bullshit position next time you go out with the team or to a party or something. And I can't be Ma'am if I don't trust you any more than you can fully be Finnie if you don't trust me."

"But I…"

I growled. "Shut the fuck up Finn. I'm trying to leave here while we can still salvage our friendship. If I stand here and think about this shit too much more I'm gonna kick your ass so hard that you'll be really fucking glad that you are this close to the fucking hospital." I wish I could say I did something bad ass like went and found a new guy to fuck with that same week…but all I felt like doing was crawling under a rock. I decided that spending what remained of the weekend eating B&J in my dorm room was a good middle ground. Monday morning, I worked that shit off in the gym though. No way in hell was I going to let Finn Fucking Hudson cost me my scholarship. By Friday, I was feeling worse for Vince. Poor guy was acting like a kid caught in a divorce trying to keep his parents together. Finally I sat him down and explained that I couldn't be that chick that took her man back and nothing changed. I was too fucking dangerous to keep taking shit until I snapped. That at least got Vince to relax. "Anyway…you are still coming home with me for Thanksgiving. We can go and introduce you to Cedes" brother. That is gonna be some funny shit."

I didn't know if Finn and I would be able to be friends or if we'd ever get back together, those questions chased themselves around in my mind whenever I allowed my thoughts to wonder, so I knuckled under and concentrated on my classes and my training. My grades had always been good, but they were amazing by the end of that first semester. The same could be said for my training. Every ounce of aggression and anger I had for Finn and whichever rando he'd hooked up with was channeled into my wrestling. If only I could have made it stop feeling like somebody was shadow boxing my heart every time I saw him, maybe I really could be his friend. I needed to talk to someone, but my real true friends were all his too and I didn't want to fuck that up from him…most of the time. I made a decision. If I was still feeling 'some kind of way' about Finn by Thanksgiving, I'd talk shit out with Mercedes, Kurt and Tina when we were all home and face to face. It may have been delaying thinking about things further, but I had to admit, the decision really helped me be able to start sleeping the whole night through again.

* * *

><p>AN: Before you all start calling for my head on a platter, please know that this is setting up something major that is part of the canon story line.<p>

Drop me a review and let me know how many of you who started out with me are still on the journey.

Oh and can someone please tell me that the Headline on Yahoo TV is BS and Samchel is not a real thing RIB are trying to do?

TTFN,  
>Anni<p> 


	3. Crazy Girl, God Bless Saturday

**Les Âmes Soeurs**  
>AnniKay<p>

Sam/Mercedes/Puck  
>Disclaimer: I own Nothing…Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennen along with Fox and others own this fandom and all the characters there in…Anything you recognize obviously belongs to them<br>******THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****  
>Allow me to name a few of the best reviewers names here:<strong>

**Isis Aurora Tomoe, zeejack, Sharie, Gingerberrycatt, Rainbowbrite0006, & hgbul1  
>Thank all of you for being avid readers &amp; reviewers of my stories <strong>

**Special thanks to KayBee80 & Illiandyanndra who have been Beta rock stars for all of my ten stories**

**Summary: **The gang has moved to New York. College and career are on the horizon…Are the Original New Directions ready for what all the future holds?  
><strong>AN:<strong> _Many of KAMA's songs are real songs recorded by artists in the past. Please check out the Yahoo Group for a full listing of the correct singers, songwriters and other necessary information._

*******Mariposafria**, if you are still reading there is a little Tidbit in here just for you.

* * *

><p><strong>Crazy Girl (Eli Young Band)<br>**_Rachel PoV_

Although I can freely admit that I was not ideally situated, location-wise in New York, I -like a phoenix rising from the ashes- soon settled into NYC life with ease and found a group of sycophants both within my building and at Tisch. Flatbush Gardens was not the trendy walk up or loft in SoHo or the Village that I had imagined, but they were nice enough…I suppose. The entire complex was actually a reclaimed, renovated government housing 'projects' and the renovations were incredibly well done. While the apartment layouts were the same, everything had been upgraded from the firewalls and drywall to the kitchen and bath fixtures to the employees. The former section eight apartments were now even wired for modern data and I had to admit that the acoustics were definitely a selling point for me. Currently my building, which was still trying to force its way out of the stigma of its unfortunate past, was home to a mix of students of the arts...and peppered liberally with unfortunate souls mired in other less important fields...along many people just starting their careers. The first person I met lived across the hall. She was an Israeli national in her early twenties who was in New York for specialized training with the UN. Naomi Samson had proved herself to be a good neighbor; helping me find a nice synagogue nearby, praising my voice rather than complaining that my practices some time ran a tad long. However right around the time I found out that Naomi had a rather unfortunate strong personality, I also realized that while she was nice enough neighbor, she would never allow herself to become useful enough that I could consider her to be an actual friend.

I found my "in building" friends in the laundry room. Faye Barberari and Miller Brochurst lived a few floors above me in another two bedroom unit. Faye was a sous chef at La Grenouille on the East Side of Manhattan and could always be counted on to supply me with dinner for a song or two. Miller slid easily into the vacancy left by Kurt's defection. He was tall and slender, very fashion forward and totally gay. Miller had graduated FIT on the same day that I had graduated Carmel. He was currently a paid intern for Isabelle Wright at Vogue. Within the first month of our friendship, he'd arranged for me to have a full makeover, since he felt my look was still far too Midwest. I disagreed, but I was quite happy to not have to pay the three hundred dollars I had been quoted at a salon near the campus to have my hair returned to my original lustrous, deep, rich brown.

The hairstylists that Miller introduced me to were quite adept. They restricted the very professional looking honey blond of my hair to just ombred ends while the mass of it was back to deep chocolate brown tapering down to the 'unfortunate color choice' they felt I had made right before the beginning of my senior year. Once the hairstylists were happy, they turned me over to the hands of two makeup artists who did my color palette and taught me to apply more makeup than I would ever want to use...after all, why cover the perfection of my natural complexion? The clothing that was pressed upon me was on trend and seasonal, which meant that I would be able to use those pieces to augment my more classic choices. The ones I had diligently purchased before I left Lima for college.

However, I wasn't the only thing that received the makeover auspices of Miller and Faye. My apartment was very quickly redecorated to fit all the clothing and makeup I had gleaned from the goodwill of Miller and his mentor. My refrigerator was overflowing with decadent, and yet always vegetarian or vegan, offerings from Faye's kitchen. The two of them were definitely well on their way to making up for the less than stellar location of my apartment. Everything was not just going far better than expected on the home front. Tisch had proven to be far more compatible with my voice and destiny than I had ever imagined. I was very proud of how very well I was doing carrying a full course load. I had high grades in all four of the classes I was taking my first semester. All of my professors were enraptured and enthralled by my voice, as they should be. Even my dance teacher spoke of my technically flawless version of 'Oops I Did It Again,' hailing it as infinitely better that the original. I ignored her following comment as to the fact that Britney Spears could only be improved upon.

Best of all while they are 'famous' for the program Clive Davis established, Tisch really did have a very good vocal theatre program as well. Speaking with my advisor during orientation had proven quite beneficial. I was happy to learn that since I had elected to go into the vocal theatre program and, as I understand it, Santana had elected to pursue the broader vocal performance major in addition to Business or Marketing or some other irrelevant thing; I managed to avoid her for the most part. I only had one class with the aggressive Latin Ava Braun, and that class was huge and she was all the way across the room. The campus was large and spread out and yet I still found it very easy to find out why Santana came to our colloquium darting smug, superior glances at me…as if she knew something that I didn't know and that the information would somehow place her above me… Mercedes and her paramours were already beginning to record their first album.

From there it was a matter of researching studios and the production process. In the course of the third week of my investigations, I finally managed to get the name of one of her producers. Xavi Rossi was a young producer who had graduated from Tisch just a few years before. My advisor had known him during his years of attendance. I sold him some line about being interested in finding out more about what was expected of an artist in a recording session. Since the school actually encouraged alums to come back and mentor current students, my advisor was kind enough to cultivate an introduction for me.

Xavi Rossi was quite attractive. He was biracial, African-American and some form of lighter skinned Hispanic or perhaps Italian, stood about six foot tall and had a slim, swimmer or runner physique. It didn't take me much time at all to find out all about his work with 'Kama' as they were apparently calling their group. He had nothing but glowing praise for their work ethic, songwriting and their voices. He even lauded the range of the no talent hack that had been my best friend before he turned on me for the lesser talented Mercedes. I decided in that moment that while Xavi might have been suitably attractive, he did not have a sophisticated enough ear to suit my tastes. Besides, try as I might he refused to allow me to listen to any of their tracks. I was hoping that I would be able to get my hand on something to leak on the internet. It was a well-known fact that no one would buy albums when they were able to get several of the songs for free.

Yet, my Dealings with Xavi did prove valuable. During the course of our discussions, Xavi introduced me to a NYADA senior named Brody Weston. Brody held my voice above all others and he was even willing to schlep all the way out to Flatbush to help me with the few little problems I was having in my dancing class. Despite her good taste when it came to my vocals, Madame Kryzanowska refused to acknowledge the inherent grace and fluidity of my dancing. She often likened me to 'a possum on valium'. Brody, through various means helped me to find a sensuality that I was never before able to bring to my movements. Granted though we did explore a carnal liaison, at no point did he ever even try to take my virginity. He, more than anyone I'd ever known before, understood its importance. After introducing me to the wonders of the female orgasm, through cunnillingus only of course…he even noted that mine was the most intense he had ever been privileged to witness…Brody hastened to advise me not to let it go for less than a major reason. "If you save that for the right director or producer, you would literally be writing your ticket in this town. Especially if you learn to evaluate their inner kink and cater to that need. Men in power in this industry all have their inner needs. Figure out what makes them spank their monkeys and you will literally be golden." He was even willing to help me learn to read people for their hidden needs and desires. He was definitely proving himself to be one of the most useful friends I'd ever made.

**God Bless Saturday (Kid Rock)**  
><em>Puck PoV<em>

By the third week of October I was fucking done with the whole fucking going to college while working on album thing...and all of the shit it came with. Our weeks were ridiculously full. Monday through Friday we had classes from eight in the morning to five in the evening. after dinner we either worked on school shit or we rehearsed with our background vocalists and musicians so that we didn't wast any of the hella expensive studio time. Saturdays we were in the studio usually from seven to eleven. On our one damn day off, Sam or Mercedes were always dragging us out of bed to go to church. The simple truth of the matter was that I was so tired and so sick of the same old same old that I wasn't even having as much fun working on my guns. In fact, it was so fucking bad that when BMG called and needed both me and Sam for a weekend shoot in the Hamptons, we took that shit without even asking how much. Unfortunately Cedes decided to stick it out in the city and take the day in the studio to lay down her vocal tracks for 'Leave a Light On', 'Hard Out There' and two other songs where Sam and I were basically just extra musicians and background vocals.

The weekend didn't help as much as I'd hoped. We were in the fucking Hamptons in October taking pictures for summer catalogues. The shoot lasted from sunup to sundown with barely any break and when we were on 'break' we were busting our asses trying to write papers for our shared freshman humanities class. Euripides Medea was one hell of a classic, but it was heavy reading in the best of times. Gonna also admit that to me that shit was hella-scary...I don't know a single dude stupid enough to cheat on a broad once they had read that play. Thankfully the small papers we had to do were only fifteen hundred words tops and they had to be turned in via the class' website so no actual paper was involved. Originally the professor had been all about the discussion, but someone got all pissed off about her lack of structure and the rest of the department dropped the hammer. That so sucked. Even with the lack of fun that weekend, it was still really worth it. Before we left Sunday evening, they cut us each a check for sixty-five hundred bucks each. Which was definitely awesome.

All the work wasn't that bad really but all wasn't right in the land of the New Directions either. Finn called crying because he'd fucked shit up with Lauren and he was trying to figure out how to fix it. Santana was stressing because Berry was acting like she was plotting some shit and Britts was fucking egging her on rather than helping Artie calm her down. AwA and Mike were cool, but there was something going on with Baby Mama and her man, and we'd barely been able to talk to Beth once a week since the end of September. The family was doing great. Klaine was working their shit out. We were even doing our shit as landlords. Got to take some aggression out on a clogged drain in Ben and Jon's apartment, but I still couldn't shake my feelings of restlessness.

As the restlessness got worse, it started coming through in our sex life too. I mean, don't get me wrong, we did something sexy every single day, even if it was just blow jobs or tit jobs and eating Sexy Mama's pussy until she was ready to climb a wall, but it got to a point that Cede and Sam were almost convinced that I had my own hormonal time that just happened to be in the fall rather than the summer. The Sunday the week after Sam and I 'weekended in the Hamptons' we'd missed church all together because I'd woken Mercedes up an hour before the alarm went off by hooking her legs over my shoulders and eating her sweet, juicy pussy until she came awake screaming and cumming. Her screams woke Sam and he joined me as I kissed my way up to lick and suck and tease Sexy Mama's beautiful tits. Sam and I have a real jones for Ms. Jones tatas so we stayed there nipping, nibbling and playing until she was screaming and cumming all over again. I rolled on a condom and was balls deep inside her before she could even catch her breath. Only then did I lean down and capture her lips in a scorcher of a kiss. When we kissed too long, not paying Sam's weeping dick enough attention, he started butting the head against our cheeks until I turned and took the head deep into my mouth.

Cede was kind enough to lick and suck at the shaft of his dick even as I was pounding her pussy like a fuckin' boss. I let her have Sammy boy's dick so I could tuck back into sucking her tits while we boned. I groaned and threw back my head as my balls drew up ready to empty into the center of our woman's very being. For just a second, in my mind, I imagined that there was nothing at all between us. "Fuck Cede, you feel so good. Feel even better raw. I dream about it sometime…filling you full of our cum, watching your tits get bigger, your belly swell with our babies. Fuck you're gonna be so fucking hot when you're knocked up. Won't she, Sam."

"Shit." Sam hissed. "Oh fuck, that's hot as hell. Shit, Mercy…you're not gonna be able to keep our hands off of you or our dicks out of you when you're carrying our kids." He moaned. "You like the thought too, Mercy?"

"Oh God…oh God…Oh oooh…" Mercedes moaned. Her real feelings were evident in the way her body shook and shivered, her back bowed so hard she almost bucked me clear off. Then she let out a scream that we hadn't heard in a while. Sam's dick turned into a fire hose and mine wasn't any better. When I came to we showered and I pressed Sam between me and Cede and Cede between the wall and out Sammy and fucked his ass while Sexy Cede used her soft ass belly and hands to help him rub one out. After a second round with no real fucking, Sam took his control back as soon as we got back into the bedroom. I'd gotten distracted pinning Mercedes to the bed on her belly so I could fuck her amazing ass, so Sam took the opportunity that presented itself to shove his dick into me. Cede got her butt back up and knelt under us giving both my and Sam's balls a tongue bath. We didn't make it down for food until almost one. Thank Yeshiva that the beverage center in our man cave was fully stocked or we'd have gotten seriously dehydrated.

That full day of sexing helped me a lot more than the working weekend away. Probably because it was all three of us and that always made shit better. Not that shit wasn't awesome when Sam and I or Cede and I or Cede and I were together without our third; it was just that things were perfect when we were all three together.

Deborah visited us in the studio the Saturday before Halloween and made us an offer that we could not refuse. And if we'd tried, our friends would probably have killed us. Warner was hosting a party on Halloween night to celebrate the holiday. Unfortunately one of the artists on the schedule for the event, Gucci Mane, was having legal problems that made it completely impossible for him to be there to perform…i.e. his ass was in lockup somewhere far away. Deborah was willing to give us up to twenty VIP tickets to get everyone we wanted in if we'd do her a solid and fill in with three or four songs.

Since we'd already recorded eighteen or nineteen songs for the album, we had the songs ready. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that we hadn't done shit else. We had no gear. We had no choreography. We hadn't even really got the bulk of our performance band together yet. Basically she was asking us to put together a four song set in four days. Of course we agreed. Thinking through everything we would need to get done to be ready in less than a week, I called in the big guns. Bubbie showed up and between her and Deborah they agreed that Bubbie Ruth, and Anika were going to handle getting our performance outfits. We just needed to get the music together. We knew that we were going to release the Buckcherry cover. That was slated to be our first single and it was the most prepared of everything we had in the can. We worked out that Anderson would handle the piano that night, Sam and I would take strings. We'd have to use the drummer and a couple of other studio artists that ANSANE had gotten us and we used in all our studio sessions with them. Kurt was going to be our stylist that night while Artie, Santana, Jamie and Britts would handle our background vocals. Or that was the original plan. Then we realized that Jamie, like Kurt, was held to NYADA's strict performance outside of school rules.

All NYADA students had to get permission to perform outside the school sponsored performances. The best case wait period for permission was like ten to fifteen days. No way was there time. Then Jamie pointed out that she and Santana both had basically the same range. In fact Jamie had only helped out on the album when Santana couldn't because she had shit for class or something. Thankfully, Brittany had a great idea. "We should see if Quinn can come down for the weekend. The Unholy Trio can definitely back up MercyCedes easy peasy." Calls went out and Quinn and James agreed to come down after their classes on Thursday morning. With that handled we turned our attention back to getting our tracks laid down for Sam and my solo songs. The album would have mostly tracks that were all three of us in shared leads, but there were some songs that were duos and we each had two solos. We were actually getting pretty close to having all our tracks in the final edit stage. So we were trying hard not to let the Halloween gig interrupt our flow.

But shit was still fucking wrecked on the daily routine. We ended up practicing all day Sunday and every evening that week. Wednesday we had to try on all our clothes and let me tell you, the dress Bubbie was putting Cede in was gonna make it hard as hell to concentrate on singing any damn thing. Thursday as soon as we were done with our main classes, we had to skip our colloquium, but after receiving two of our tickets for the party, the lead professor was totally understanding. We got to Madison Square Garden and were shown to an honest to goodness dressing room, where we proceeded to geek the fuck out for like twenty minutes. Bubbie Ruth had taken a half day and her and Kurt had the room all ready for us. They started working on rodding Mercedes' hair and then we were led into sound check. It was weird as hell. The stage we were on was going to play host that night to Jason Derulo, Flo Rida and Bruno Mars. The three 'immoral, sexual deviants' from McKinley High were going to be the opening act for three pretty huge fucking names in music.

During the course of the afternoon we met Maggie and Tae, a country girl duo that was opening the night on the Warner Nashville stage. They were a little flirty until they realized that me and Sam were both completely taken, after that they were cool. They told us that Blake Shelton was the final act on that stage and Sam was caught in a conundrum. He had to decide if he wanted to see Bruno Mars or Blake more. He went through a whole verbal pros and con list but he kept forgetting what he had already said…it was hilarious. In the end though, that decision was pretty much made for us. The country concerts started at seven, so Blake would be going on at nine. But we were scheduled to start our set on the main Warner Music stage in the Theatre starting at nine. So we'd be able to see the R&B-Pop set after us on our stage and we could catch two or three of the acts in the hard rock/Roadrunner set that started at twelve in the Arena. That set started with Killswitch Engaged followed by Nickelback and closed out with Slipknot. We'd miss Killswitch, but we should be able to see the others if we didn't collapse in a doggy pile in the dressing room after we came off stage. I don't think we'd slept a wink all that week.

Sound check wasn't a short process. But it wasn't too long either since we didn't have a whole bunch of stuff to set up. We worked our way through it and plotting out the movements on the real stage then left the dancers to get in a practice while we headed back to the dressing room. It wasn't super huge but it was decent. There was a couch and everything. We were still packed in there like sardines. And of course, there was some bad news. Brittany had secured us ten dancers from her classes who she had trained and taught the choreography she and Mike kicked out over skype. One of them had gotten hurt that morning in their classes. With the choreography set for ten, Brittany made the decision that she was going to have to act as a dancer rather than singing. Unfortunately that left us with a problem when it came to backup singers. We were just getting ready to lose our minds and freak the hell out when Quinn and James showed up. Most of their suite-mates had plans on campus but Quinn's roommate Taylor had come down with them, unable to resist the siren's call of a weekend in Manhattan. The Lord God had our back for real…Taylor had been in her high school glee club and had helped Quinn with practicing the backup lyrics. She was happy to step in for Brittany and the dress fit her even better than it had Britts. She had to wear her own shoes, but they were shooties and they kind of looked similar to the other girl's so it really wasn't a big deal.

Santana, Quinn, Taylor, Blaine and Artie were seen to first, basically because they did their shit themselves. But I have to say Kurt was prepared for every possible scenario. He had his shit planned down to the last details. He had chosen a color palette that worked for each girl's makeup. He even managed to whip up something for Taylor whose complexion was about halfway between Santana's and Sexy Mama's. The 'Pips' makeup was simple just neutral 'not quite smoky' eyes with sheer, natural lips for the trio of girls while Cede's eyes were done all dark and sultry and full on bedroom, sexy, come hither looking. Her lips were a soft petal pink…shit, I wanted to chew them like fucking bubble gum. Since Sexy Mama's hair was in long but tight curls down to her luscious succulent tits, our 'back up singers' all had stick straight hair…even Santana.

The girls were all in blue leopard print mini dresses that made the most of their modest curves, their shoes were black leather dealies that left their toes and heels out but otherwise mainly looked like ankle boots. But my Boo…her dress was fucking killer. If Tana and them dresses were called body con, then the one Sexy Mama was rocking needed a new term. It didn't just conform to her curves; it showcased each and every one of them. It was so figure hugging that even with the shaper slip and lingerie; I could still tell you exactly where her nipples were trying to poke through. The dress itself was kind of Cede too. It had three quarter length sleeves, and was a shimmery navy blue with multicolored birds and jungle shit all over it. The back of the dress was a darker blue mesh panel from the top of her ass to the back of her neck, which was good 'cause Mercedes Jones tits are way to bodacious for her to go braless. Bubbie and Kurt finished off her look with big ass platinum and diamond hoop earrings and black platform sandals.

Sam and I, we were each rocking suits, his was a lighter shade than my navy. His look was pretty monochromatic, shirt, jacket and pants all damn near the same color while my shirt was blue and black plaid. I was rocking some navy sketchers while Sam was in, what was rapidly approaching being his fucking trademark, Chuck Taylors. Artie and Anderson were both in black suits with bright blue shirts, not a single one of us were even close to wanting to wear a tie. Kurt put some stuff on our faces, Sam's paler than mine, and did some gel shit to Sam's hair to make him look like me and Mercedes had been running our fingers through that shit and he made my 'hawk lay down. I swear we'd just sat down and the fucking stage manager was calling us up to the stage. We grabbed our guitars and followed him with Cede between us and our accompaniment behind. Bringing up the very rear were the dancers in their black cargos and black or dark gray shirts. We'd found and marked our places earlier. We took those places and things were ready.

Anderson took his seat at the baby grand piano near the left hand side of the stage. Artie, Santana, Brittany and Quinn took their places at three mike stands off to the right. They had been great about making sure that Artie and Blaine had headsets like us rather than stand mikes like the girls. The emcee announced us with a cheeky allusion to our relationship. "Warner Music's newest trio doesn't just share a stage. They share everything. Please welcome, in their first appearance; Sam Evans, Mercedes Jones and Noah Puckerman…known together as KAMA. Their first album '_Necessity for Existence'_ will be out Spring 2014." The crowd was pretty quiet because hey, we were the pretty unknown opening act. We'd argued most of the week about the best way to introduce ourselves to the world. Ultimately we chose to have the poppy, kind of weird until you paid attention to the fucking words, WTF anthem for the new millennium, '_Shakin' My Head_'. The first verse really had questions everyone has asked themselves even if they were high as hell when they did, so by the first chorus the audience was way more into it. It helped that it had a thumping bass line and we went for irony in who sang certain questions, like Sam asked why Republican's hate blacks and I asked why Jesus looks like a white guy. We let Mercedes ask about flowers looking like vaginas, though…neither Sam nor I could make it through that line without cracking up.

The crowd was hype as hell when we went into the second song. They didn't know the words yet, but they seemed to like it none the less. It was a sexy duet between me and Sexy Mama called '_Pillow Talk'_. By the end of that song I noticed that the seats were really filling up. I don't know if people were just arriving, or if they had been in the Arena at the Warner Nashville concert and come over, or if they had been getting concessions and their friends told them to hurry up…but it went from smatterings of folks to asses in the seats really quickly. That was great. Because the third song of the set, '_ColourBlind'_, was all Cede with the rest of us just acting as her accompaniment. It was truly heart wrenching and there were women in the audience actually crying by the end. In order to bring shit back up we finished off with our Buckcherry cover '_Rescue Me_'. I had to keep shit real, I didn't know if it was the whole dancing all up on Mercedes whenever I could, waltzing with her and Sam during '_ColourBlind'_ or just being up on that stage in front of what had to be at least five thousand people or what but by the time we got off stage, I was hard enough to break rocks.

We didn't even come close to making it back to our dressing room, which was probably a good thing because even though it was crowded as hell I don't think that would have stopped what happened when we got out of the walk way. Thankfully, Cede had scoped out an equipment closet and that bitch was actually unlocked. She dragged us in, locked that bitch, pushed me to her side, shimmied her tight ass dress up and her spanks thingy down. By the time her dress was around her waist I'd caught on to her plan and I was ready. When she bent down and went to work slurping and sucking Sam's cock, I ripped her soaking wet panties off and buried myself balls deep inside her. "Shit. You're too fucking wet. Feel too damn good." I growled. It was shameful how easily my ass became a two pump chump that night. I was exploding before I could even set a rhythm. Mercifully, Sexy Mama and Sam were just as fucking hot. Cede's tight, wet heat was squeezing and undulating around my dick as she screamed out her pleasure around Sam's which unloaded making that scream into a gurgle real quick.

We didn't get much time to bask at all. I had barely started to shrink at all when there was a knock at the door. "Artie made me promise not to pick the lock, but you three need to come on and get changed if you want to get to our seats before Jason Derulo goes on." Santana's voice was smug as hell.

Shit. "She's right." I grumbled. So we pulled ourselves together and made it back to the dressing room. Our friends and family had already changed and they just wanted to give us their appreciation, before they headed to their seats. Deborah had been able to work some magic and get the dancers comp tickets in the regular seats so the twenty VIP tickets she had given us were enough, especially since Cede, Sammy and I all got all access passes. In fact since we had two extra tickets after making sure that Bubbie, Saul, Mills, Neil and Jarrard, and all the housemates and tenants…including Seth and his girlfriend Summer who had started to use Ryan and Jamie's apartment as the halfway point between their schools…we were able to give Ben a ticket for a chick in his classes that he was trying to get up in.

We had to make a quick change, but there was no shame in our game. I changed into some jeans, a white long sleeve tee and tossed on my black leather jacket and called that shit done. Sam was in pretty much the same thing, but rather than a leather jacket he threw on a semi-heavy flannel shirt. Of Course Mercedes had to be sexy-fly though. Her jeans were distressed with horizontal slits down the length of her legs showing her legs. But she was smart and she'd pulled on some pantyhose under them for warmth. A black New York Girls tee shirt, a black blazer with leather sleeves and darker makeup finished off her look. Just before we got ready to head to our seats, Deborah poked her head in and she was smiling back. "You guys killed it. Christophe called he said that KAMA is already getting blown up on social media. He needs you to come in some time next week and do some promo shots so he can set you up with your own online presence."

Mercedes shook her head. "It can't be Monday I have the shoot for the 'Who You Are' with Ms. Scott on first thing Monday morning. She was nice enough to make sure it was a day I didn't have classes."

"If it won't be an all day thing, we can do it the next morning? We have Tuesday off for Election Day, but our midterms start Wednesday and I still have a paper to finish." Sam chimed in.

Deborah sent off a series of text. "Anika will do all the shopping for you with you having total veto power. Christophe says that if you will give him from eight to noon on Tuesday, he will help you with the paper. He minored in English."

"Probably he was just kidding, but we will hold him to it." I said giving her a fierce look.

We quickly finished up and headed to our seats. Saul, Millsy, and the rest of the crew were waiting on us. The concert was boss. Watching Sexy Mama dance to Derulo's '_Wiggle Wiggle'_ was so worth the price of admission…the last week worth of hard work. As an opening act we didn't get paid shit well other than the clothes, we got to keep them, and all the tickets. At least we didn't have to come out of pocket like we might have if we weren't doing them a favor. After Bruno Mars finished up, we all headed over and got there in time for the last two RoadRunner bands. By the time we left the Garden, it was half after three. Nobody even rolled over to make it to our first classes. And when we did roll out we all looked pretty much like we had the morning after Rachel Berry's Train Wreck of a party junior year. Que, James and Tay headed back to Yale, their mid terms started Monday. Summer and Seth had actually gotten a hotel room because Ryan refused to relax his 'no body is having sex in my bed except me' rule, and they stopped by before they headed out too.

The next week there was still no rest for the wicked, but after the concert and seeing the marketing department at Warner boosting us up through social media the restlessness was gone. KAMA had a twitter account, a FaceBook page; we were trending all over the place thanks to ANSANE and Xavi putting out teasers of a few of our songs. Granted I let some of the edginess resurface when it came to making love to my boos. It was fun as hell getting my Babygirl and Alpha Man to bone all night even when they had classes or even when they were so tired they could barely get wet and hard again. Besides, why should Sammy boy get to be the only one runnin' shit and makin' us scream ourselves hoarse? The Zilla was truly loving that shit. I really thought that I would have to bury that part of me forever. I never believed that his appetite could be appeased with just two lovers all the time. But having what had been the strongest part of me integrated in with the best parts of me made me really feel like I was a grown up. It was time to call Anika and have her schedule that haircut.

**Thinking Out Loud (Ed Sheeran)**  
><em>Kurt PoV<em>

I loved my brother, but he was officially an idiot. He was happy with Lauren. I know that he was. He was really, truly happy. Then he had to go and ruin it. I'm probably losing all kind of brother cred, but I totally agree with Lauren, even if he didn't sleep with the other girl, he should never have put himself into the situation where he could honestly have no clue if he did or didn't. Per Lauren's advice, he started seeing a counselor on campus and the psychiatrist felt that something inside Finn made him feel like he didn't deserved to be happy. So, of course, the first chance he got, he wrecked it. Then to add insult to injury, he had the nerve to try and act like Lauren was wrong for not giving him another chance.

"I'm in therapy. I'm trying to make the right choices, make better decisions…but she still says we have to stay friends." He sighed. "I miss her so much Kurt. I miss her all the time."

I sighed as I tried to think of the right thing to say. I hated to see him so sad but I could easily see Lauren's point. "Finn, you know that trust is one of the most important parts of any relationship."

"Yeah, Dr. Baker keeps saying that without trust there can't be a real, lasting love." Finn asked more than he stated. I could tell that he didn't get where I was going with that statement.

So I explained. "It is even more vital in the kind of relationship you had with Lauren. Communication and trust are of the utmost importance. Lauren could have taken you back even though she still felt hurt. She might have even tried to convince herself that she really had forgiven you…on your timetable rather than her own…but that kind of hurt doesn't go away just because you want it to. If you two were in a scene and that hurt came out you could get physically hurt, which would in turn emotionally hurt Lauren even more."

"Oh." Finn sighed again and changed the subject as he was wont to do when you agreed with the other person instead of him. "So how did that big midterm project go in your textile class?"

I allowed the change and we talked about classes and school. He'd gotten some tutoring to help him with his midterms, but since he was on the football team, they had a whole network of free tutors. So he was pretty confident that his grades would be okay. He listened to me complain in one breath and gush in the next about my NYADA Movement class and my FIT Flat Pattern Design classes. We talked about how he was getting along with Vince, those two had totally bonded. They were so close already that Noah actually seemed a little jealous. We discussed our individual travel plans for Thanksgiving. Finn would get home first since he could leave Tuesday after his classes and had to be back by early Friday afternoon to travel with the team to Ann Arbor for a Saturday game.

After my classes on Tuesday I had to help Mercedes get ready for the Drop Party Warner was holding for the SongBird soundtrack at the iconic Webster Hall. Granted, I only 'had' to help her get ready in exchange for the chance to attend the event so I wasn't complaining. I was certainly finding it to be true that entering adulthood alongside my very best friends in the world and attempting to make my mark on the world was proving to be more difficult than I had expected. All around me, the people I love the most, myself included, were making mistakes, working themselves ragged, and becoming embroiled in drama the likes of which the Kardashian sisters would find exhausting. However, it must also be said that the perks _did _usually outweigh the downside.

Over the thanksgiving break, our side of the house would be mostly empty, but Santana, Brittany and Artie would watch over it for us, and I believe that Artie's mom and dad were going to be staying in our guest room while Santana's and Brittany's parents stayed in their two guest rooms. Wednesday morning, very, very early, the five of us along with Bubbie Ruth, Saul and Mills were flying to Ohio, renting a car or two and driving back to Lima. We wrapped up our conversation and said our goodbyes.

Blaine finished up his course work and put away his things. "Finn still upset that Lauren won't take him back?"

"Yeah, Quinn and Rachel have him convinced that 'I'm Sorry' is a total panacea and forgiveness is automatically assured there after…or at least reconciliations are. Because neither of them ever really forgave him as quickly as they took him back. Instead they allowed him back into the relationship and punished him until they felt better."

"Speaking of punishment, did you warn him that Santana, Puck and Mercedes know?" My boyfriend asked with a small smirk.

I shook my head "Carole made me promise not to. She wants him to actually go home rather than hiding in his dorm room. We all know that if he knew that Santana can't say his name without cursing in Spanglish, he would never believe us when we tell him that she is staying here."

"She isn't as mad as she could be…there was still some English in there."

That was very true. One day the month before some guy had tried to mug her on the subway. Santana bad been so deeply angry she'd retreated so far into her grandfather's native language that the cops had assumed that she couldn't speak English at all and had called in a translator. Thank GaGa they decided to drop the assault charges against her. It really was self-defense…and after some surgery…the mugger didn't even lose his fingers. I shivered. "I still can't believe that the police really returned her straight razor."

"Well it _was_ a graduation gift from her grandfather." Blaine smiled as he crossed the room. "You can't forget that part."

"Who could?" I chuckled. "Only Santana Admira Lopez would receive an antique, onyx straight razor as a graduation gift and decide that it was the perfect thing for personal defense."

Blaine laughed. "I think that's exactly why he gave it to her. He's lived in New York since he was a child. He probably worried about his granddaughter in Manhattan. Don't forget Cedes' sisters-in-law gave her that lipstick looking Taser, and Puck gave me those brass knuckles that look like a four finger ring. Didn't your dad give you something too?" he pressed his point.

I blushed. Of course he had. I had just barely legal to own pepper spray and mace and a safety whistle. I probably would have been insulted but he gave Finn the same thing. "He got me some things."

My handsome boyfriend wrapped his arms around me. "See, all our family and friends wanted us to have a way of defending ourselves in case of any unwanted attacks."

With a grin I asked, "And what about wanted ones?"

"Oh, nothing can save you from those." He teased before dragging my mouth down to his.

Blaine's kisses never failed to leave me breathless. That night was no different. No matter how tired I was, a few kisses from the man I loved with all my heart and I was refreshed and renewed. My hands smoothed over his cloth covered back until they found the hem of his shirt and stripped it from him. Then they trailed lightly, teasingly over his heated skin tracing the dips and plains of his well defined back and shoulders. While my fingers and hands stoked and teased, Blaine's were busy being about the business of getting me naked. I didn't know if I realized that my lounger pants were around my ankles before Blaine broke our kiss to drop to his knees and envelop me in the warm, wet cavern of his mouth. He opened his mouth wide and worked it down the full length of my organ. Blaine had long ago become comfortable enough with my size that he was able to take my whole length into his mouth. When his lips were being tickled by my pubic bush he clamped them closed around the base of my shaft and rubbed his tongue against the sensitive underside of my cock head. Blaine's mouth worked up and down my shaft, as he used his lips and tongue to stimulate my full length. He was making deliberate slurping sounds as he swept up and down it knowing how I loved it when he emphasized how much he was enjoying sucking me. The sounds of his slurps and sucks and my moans pleasure quickly filled our room.

"Oh God Baby." I moaned. Only the pleasure that Blaine brought to me could make me pray to a God that I didn't believe in. "So beautiful…feels so good." I babbled.

I felt more than saw Blaine chuckle. He was always amused when I 'found my religion'. But his laughter was an odd sensation for me, since his mouth was clamped around my cock. He stunned me into incoherence when he pulled off me to concentrate his efforts on my exposed glans. He lapped at my oozing slit like someone licking a melting ice-cream and then worked his lips over the red, swollen head, suckling it loudly and making it throb with satisfaction. He took me deeply back into his mouth just as I was getting to the point of no return, the change forcing me back from that edge. I pouted a little when he stopped again before I could cum. "Get on the bed on your hands and knees." He commanded his voice harsh and gruff. When I'd taken off my shirt, pulled back the counterpane and complied with Blaine's order he murmured and, "Now, Baby, that is beautiful." He complimented as he got into the bed running his hands over my ass and down my flanks. As his hands came back up, he spread my derriere checks and started to gently lap at my asshole.

It may not have been something I'd originally thought I would even like, but the truth of the matter was that whenever Blaine applied his lips and tongue to any part of me there was no like...only love. Yet, when he licked me there, it felt even better, even more erotic than when he sucked my dick. Blaine's tongue was magic. He could penetrate me with it as if it were a small dick. As he licked and stroked his tongue in and out of my ass, I became one of the less pejorative names homosexuals were called as I grabbed one of the pillows and bit down on it to silence my cries and screams. I had played right into Blaine's plan when I'd angled my body so that my ass was on my side of the bed near the top. He was able to reach into my drawer and grab out some lube and a condom. When he entered me, I heard a choir of the entire female cast of My Six Hundred Pound Life singing inside my head. My control was well and truly over. Our screams echoed around the room and the physical evidence of my orgasm shot across our bed in the copious amounts that could only come from true and complete, almost exhaustive, satisfaction.

Despite our rather fastidious natures, Blaine and I had gotten quite accustomed to sleeping in our bed even on nights when it was covered in our cum. Poor Blaine barely had the energy to rid himself of the condom, before he too fell into the bed with me. We showered together the next morning after our workouts. We were still doing our exercises separately as I was working with Brittany every morning. A fact that Ms. July, my Dance and Movement professor at NYADA was quite happy with. Routine days have a way of rushing by even as they drag on. Classes at both my schools were informative and I was learning a lot that would definitely benefit me as soon as I entered the work force. But even more styling Mercedes, Noah and Sam taught me a lot.

Noah and Sam had both gone to the barber that their image consultant recommended and they both looked amazing. Sam's hair was its natural sandy blonde color with just some sparing lighter blond highlights. Noah's hair was about three quarters of an inch long all over…the Mohawk gone, and yet he seemed lighter and happier somehow. Since the night was primarily about Cedes, they had each decided to wear black sport coats with jeans and white shirts. Sam had gone with a V neck tee shirt and Puck had gone with a button down shirt that was left open at the collar. However, Mercedes and I had spent quite some time getting her look exactly right. Once they had finally put to bed the last of the twenty five tracks they had recorded for their album, she and I had pored over what we had hoped to create for her style versus the things available to us commercially.

It was that endeavor that showed me that things were not all well in the land of Mercedes, but she refused to acknowledge there was a problem. She was trying and failing at pretending that everything was fine. But I could tell from the dresses she was selecting that she wasn't in a good head space. The dresses were all very pre-Commune Mercedes. They were nothing at all like the clothes she'd begun to wear since she had gained confidence in her sexuality and beauty. To be honest I wasn't sure that we would find anything that we both liked that was all it should be for her first record release party. In my spare time I'd have to try to design something that she could wear the night KAMA's first album dropped. That dress would need to be spectacular. I couldn't wait until I could actually devote my time to creating all the fashions for her big events...I can envision her dress for their first Grammys already, perhaps I can speak with my Fashion Art and Design instructor, it could certainly count as a final project for my spring class.

Still I was rather worried about Mercedes. She was hiding something and not just from me. Noah and Sam were worried as well. Santana had gotten to the point that she was talking about turning their study into an interrogation room. Apparently our Latina friend doesn't like not knowing what was bothering people she cares about. I tried not to feel worried or slighted by the fact that Cedes hadn't shared her concerns, but when I realized that she was keeping it internal to the point of excluding her lovers as well, I knew that it must be something she needed to deal with herself for a while before she could share. After the Karofsky situation before I transferred to Dalton, I knew that I couldn't try to take the moral high ground on the whole 'a problem shared is a worry halved' thing. Besides some voice deep inside me was saying that everything would be just fine. Then I realized that I'd been so focused on styling Cedes and her guys, I'd forgotten about Blaine and me. I would need to go shopping. I needed something fabulously fashionable, it would not do to have anyone there not see how much I was able to bring to the friendship table with Mercedes and her new life…especially not me. The last thing I wanted was to be seen as her gay best friend who was trying to ride her coat tails, or worse a talentless hanger on. I was going to do my best to be as supportive and helpful as Mercedes had always been to me. I just wish that didn't mean that sometimes I had to not press her for details until she was ready to share them.

* * *

><p>Another wonderful author's note admonishing you all to read and review. (And praying canon Rachel will get a dictionary without the FRIEND page ripped out.)<p>

Gotta say though Mercedes 'All About That Base' was pretty Epic.

Having real trouble liking Sam right now...maybe some writer out there will write something that washes the crud I've been hearing away.

TTFN,

Anni


	4. Masterpiece & Thrift Shop

**Les Âmes Soeurs**  
>AnniKay<p>

Sam/Mercedes/Puck  
>Disclaimer: I own Nothing…Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennen along with Fox and others own this fandom and all the characters there in…Anything you recognize obviously belongs to them<br>******THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****  
><strong>The more I hear about this last season of** Glee **the more I realize that it is a very good thing I'm not still watching. RIB and his writers can each collectively and individually kiss my big black ass.** SamCedes is EndGame. **If they can't see that then they need new, not stupid, eyes.**  
>Thank all of you for being avid readers &amp; reviewers of my stories <strong>

**Special thanks to KayBee80 & Illiandyanndra who have been Beta rock stars for all of my ten stories**

**Summary: **The gang has moved to New York. College and career are on the horizon…Are the Original New Directions ready for what all the future holds?  
><strong>AN:<strong> _Many of KAMA's songs are real songs recorded by artists in the past. Please check out the Yahoo Group for a full listing of the correct singers, songwriters and other necessary information._

* * *

><p><strong>Masterpiece (Jessie J)<br>**_Mercedes PoV_

All my life my Grandma Mae told me that I needed to 'stop trying to borrow trouble'. I truly didn't think that was what I did. To my way of thinking, it was a simple fact of life that whenever things were going really well for me, some part of the universe would ultimately show me that I wasn't anything all that special. I just felt that my life went a lot more smoothly when I prepared ahead for that fact. The first few months in New York had gone amazingly well. Sure, we were running ourselves half ragged trying to attend Columbia full time, Juilliard part time, record an album and fulfill Sam and Noah's contractual obligations to BMG. I mean our unconventional relationship was actually the easiest thing we had to manage...even with Noah suddenly discovering that he had a hormonal season himself. While Sam's fell during the summer, Puck's just happened to fall in the middle of October... but for the most part I really did think we were managing everything successfully. At least I did until we agreed to do the Madison Square Garden Halloween concert for Warner…from there; everything seemed to quickly snowball out of control.

My life was suddenly more complicated and busy and hectic than I was really able to deal with. Worst of all, I was hiding that fact from everyone, even Sam and Noah. My classes were going fine. After midterms, I had high B to low As in everything. They probably would have been higher, but I pretty much missed a whole day of review after the Halloween concert. My period was supposed to come the following week and then I was scheduled to get my next shot the week after that at the campus health center. Only Aunt Flow never arrived. I was tired, cranky, my breasts hurt all to be damned, I was nauseous and everything, but not even the very light period that I'd been getting with the shot came. There was no other way to say it; I was freaked out. But I also knew that with since we were in the middle of Midterms, there was no way I could bother Sam or Noah. Sam would have more than enough to deal with…stress, tests, and papers were all bad for his learning disability. The last thing he needed on top of all that was a 'hey, I'm late' discussion. I couldn't bring myself to tell Puck without telling Sam and if I didn't tell either of them, I sure as hell wasn't telling anyone else. So instead, I kept it all bottled up and I worried and I fretted and I got so nervous I threw up, which only made me more worried. It was one hell of a vicious cycle.

I did have distractions, thank goodness. We were rapidly approaching the SongBird soundtrack release party where KAMA had to do our song from the soundtrack and I would be doing at least one of my solos and performing my maid featured duet with Jill. Anika, Kurt, Bubbie and I were getting the fashions ready for those performances while Puck, Sam and I were getting the songs prepped. We hadn't really performed 'The Fighter' since we'd recorded it before we left LA. Thankfully Jill and the Weitz Brothers were doing most of the promotional stuff. Though I had been called on to do a few early morning radio interviews with Jill for the soundtrack.

On top of all of that, that Monday I was completely embroiled in the video shoot for the first song that was going to be released from the SongBird movie soundtrack. It was interesting to say the least. Much like during regular filming, I was up at the ass crack of dawn. I showered, moisturized, packed a bag of foundation garments that could work with several different styles of dresses, pulled on some black panties and a functional black bra. Then I threw on some yoga pants, one of Sam's long sleeve tee shirts, one of Puck's not-yet-mutilated-to-show-off-his-guns sweatshirts, along with cute sneakers and made my way to Brooklyn to the Windmill Studios Lot. I was in hair and makeup by seven. Thankfully they did some magic to make my Pocahontas weave look more like the shorter cut that would be equated with the character's look. They also played with the makeup look so that I would look a little more like Lillian than like Mercedes. But that was something that had happened every morning of filming…it wasn't as if they were doing prosthetic pieces or anything, just playing with colors that I never really thought to utilize or thought too edgy for me.

Jill wasn't far behind me, but she looked way more awake than I was feeling that morning. "Girl, you look like you are running yourself ragged. But a little birdie told me that your recorded tracks are all in final edits, so soon you'll be able to put to bed your first album…that has to make it at least a little better…right?"

"It really does, but I could definitely use a vacation soon." I admitted.

Jill laughed. "Oh sweetie…I hate to break it to you, but you are at least three or four years out from getting a real break. First you have to get out the debut album. You're gonna be doing promotion and, hopefully, three to four videos off that album. Then there is the opening act tour. Then you've gotta write and record your sophomore album and hope and pray that shit sells too. Another round of promos and videos then a middle card tour. In the middle of that tour cycle you'll be doing either a duets album or a Christmas/holiday album…usually those don't get a whole lot of fan fair…just a video or two. But they are definitely money in the bank. Then after that you have to put out a third album. This time you have to try to top the sales of the previous two or you won't be getting a fourth. Again you need to do videos, promotional, and the tour, headlining this time which is a headache of its own. Then you can probably have a nice break…but since you're handling your college stuff too…that might be five or six years out."

I groaned. "Just what I needed to hear this morning."

Jill shrugged unconcernedly. "Just keepin' it one hundred. This life we lead looks good from the outside, but it sure as hell ain't for the weak at heart."

"No one has ever called my black ass weak...short, yeah…but weak never." I returned with a chuckle. Soon our makeup was finished, our hair was on point and we were lead to wardrobe. The video concept was amazingly simple. We would start of at different sides of the sound stage in front of a huge green screen. We were to walk towards each other slowly and of course on beat singing as we went. We would do it in three different gowns. The first gowns were both shades of blue. Jill's gown was floor length with a deep décolletage and chevron ruching to beading and sequins at the center of her torso. It was highlighted with a faux fur, thigh length coat in a matching blue. My own gown was slightly darker and it was heavily beaded. The one shoulder gown hugged my curves as tightly as humanly possible and to be honest I was kind of scared that some of the singing I would need to do would pop the darts the wardrobe mistress had added to make it truly body conforming. Since we were walking over and over again, our shoes were actually designed for function rather than form. Granted they were still high heels, so it did still hurt some eventually, but after about thirty repetitions of the song -we only had to sing for real twice- we were sent to have a little break and change.

The next thirty times we heard our voices come over the speakers, we were in red. My dress was true cherry red shantung silk with cap sleeves, a square neckline and weirdly flattering pleating and draping over the bodice and waist. The skirt hugged my hips and thighs, but skimmed my calves with extra volume that made you wonder at first if there was a bustle or cape behind me. Ms. Scott's dress was completely fierce. It was a little oranger a shade of red than mine, but of the same material. It hugged her curves and the long sleeves were tightly wrapped as well. The bodice was a shawl collar that again showed her girls off to the very best advantage. While my weave was hella curly and down, Jill's long natural hair was braided into intricate updos. The last run through we were both in black and in wigs that were styled exactly like we'd worn our hair when shooting the film. Jill's dress was another body con dress with a plunging neckline and mermaid skirt. It was simply elegant and totally dramatic. My dress was a simple, one shoulder empire waist gown with skirts that were layers of chiffon over a body skimming layer of silk. For six hours we walked and sang, then we got changed back into our street clothes and let them work their magic while we had a very late lunch. Before we broke for the day, we saw the filmed scenes that would play behind us; some were famous mothers and their daughters, or famous daughters and their mothers, including the song's writer Jessica Cornish aka Jessie J and her mother. There were women who had been 'born female' and transgender women. Interspersed in those were scenes from SongBird. The mini-movie really was a testament to the love of mothers and daughters.

Ms. Scott gave me a ride back to Harlem. She and I laughed the whole way there. She was actually supposed to be having dinner with some friends at Ginny's Supper Club. Since she had some time to kill she asked if she coluld see the house. I gladly gave her the full tour. Thankfully, all my friends behaved themselves…even Santana. Jill was very kind and took pictures with everyone who asked her and she talked with Jamie about her dreams and NYADA. I was getting used to how just cool Jill Scott really was, and by the time she left to go get dressed, our whole household loved her.

The next day we were once more up with the chickens. We made it to Warner's offices by seven thirty and took a limo with Anika and Christophe over to Brooklyn Bridge and the accompanying park for the actual shoot. They had everything ready for us when we got there. Hair and makeup was kept really simple for the first shots. I was decked out in an above the knee silver body con dress with little to no cleavage but gorgeous embellishments to keep it very interesting, black heels, wavy hair and a bold fuchsia lip. Sam and Puck were both shirtless in jeans that were open at the waistband. For the first shot, we were standing on the bridge's iconic walk way each of them leaning their backs against one of my shoulders, Sam on my right and Noah on my left. They took a few serious faces then had us looking smiling and happy and a few more where the guys were giving me their best 'come hither' looks. Then they had us stand with the guys facing the camera, but angled towards me. I was facing away, but throwing a sensual smile back at the camera over my shoulder. My arms were around their waists and they each had a hand on my backside. Their own smiles were very devilish. Then they asked for a shot. Without a word to each other, they both dropped to their knees and kissed my hips. I don't know who laughed more at that one, me or the photographer.

After that we changed into black and white outfits. I was in a white dress with black sides giving me a damn near perfect looking hourglass silhouette. Noah was in black slacks with a black vest and tie and simple white business shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Sam's black and white look was harsher. He was wearing black jeans and a black leather jacket with a plain white tee under it. We each took solo shots in the black and white outfits. The shots were taken in the park with the Manhattan sky line behind us. The photographer also a group shot of us still in the black and white outfits but where we were each in different parts of the frame, looking around as if we were each there by our self. We were then posed on the bridge in pretty much the same poses all over again in the black and white.

Another wardrobe change and we all were in black leather jackets. My jacket covered a black patent leather bustier which was paired with black suede pants and boots. Puck's covered a heather gray vee neck and black leather jeans. They just had Sam change into a dark gray graphic tee; the rest of his outfit was the same as the black and white look. They rolled a purple piano into place so that I could sit at it and have the skyline behind me. That picture turned out amazing, but oh God did sitting in those tight ass black suede pants hurt all to be damned. They set up a white wall and had Puck sit in front of it with a guitar and then did the same with Sam. They then had Sam and Noah put their feet up on the piano bench on either side of me and told us to look as if we were working on a song together.

The final wardrobe change saw them putting in more black. This time for me it was black skinny jeans, a slightly more comfortable black satin bustier and a black quilted satin bolero jacket. I did get to wear a fucking awesome pair of six inch, black leather Louboutin pumps. That was totally worth the ill conceived suede pants. I was posed a million different ways always alone. Puck was in black jeans a black blazer and black tee, with black Sketchers. He went through the same amount of poses before he was released and allowed to get back into his street clothes. For the totally solo pics, Sam was dressed in charcoal slacks, a black vee neck pullover and black dress shoes. By the end of the shoot he was complaining about his feet so bad I wanted to make him rock the Louboutins that Anika had gifted me with at the end of the shoot…five minutes in those and he would be loving his 'uncomfortable' men's dress shoes.

Unfortunately even dealing with several distractions can be pretty fleeting. All too soon I was forced back to my reality. For the better part of the following week I kept the fact that I thought I was pregnant to myself, trying to find comfort where I could. I talked to my grandmother and great aunts on the phone, pretending like I was just updating them with how school was going and how life in New York was shaping up. Not one of them said anything about having any dreams involving fish or death. I did find out that Felicia was on bed rest and would be until she gave birth. She and Gabbie were due about the same time, but Gabbie was having a much easier pregnancy. Still, while I was majorly happy that Felicia was finally getting the baby she had dreamed of and ached for for so long, I didn't want to talk about pregnancies or babies. I was very relieved to hear that none of them, not even Aunt Bee or Grandma had had any prophetic dreams.

I didn't really relax until the Friday of the week after midterms. I kept the appointment that I had made during orientation when we toured the health center to get my next depo shot. I held my breath while I peed in the cup and had my blood drawn for my blood work. The wait was interminable. Those were the longest twenty minutes of my freakin' life. When the RN came to give me my results, she was all smiles and chipperness. "Well as expected, you're not pregnant, though you are presenting with some mild anemia and Vitamin D deficiency. I'd like to see you taking a multivitamin and getting an extra thirty minutes of sunlight every day." The breath of air that I released when she said I wasn't pregnant was harsh and ruffled her papers. I was just that relieved. "I take it that you were worried about pregnancy?" she asked with a small grin.

"It just that my period didn't come, at all." I murmured.

She nodded. "That will eventually happen with the depo provera and according to the records your doctor sent in, you've been on it for over a year. Stress and major life changes have been known to cause hiccups in women's cycles as well. Moving to college, is a big change and really can be stressful...you wouldn't be the first girl to have her cycle thrown off by all these changes."

She gave me my depo shot and an infusion of iron to help with the anemia that she felt was the cause of my fatigue. When I left that office I was feeling damn near high I was so happy. As much as I would love any child of Sam and Noah's, I also knew that it was way too soon and we were entirely too busy to have that child right then. I was so happy that I needed to go shopping and I had the best excuse for why. I still needed to perfect my look for the soundtrack drop party and the dress that Kurt and I had thought would be perfect when I was feeling some kind of way thinking I'd fucked up our whole future just wasn't doing it for me any longer. Originally we'd decided upon a sweetly demure Marina Rinaldi cocktail dress in a pretty shade of salmon. It was the exact opposite of how I felt when with Noah and Sam. It was a Sunday go to meeting dress. I needed something with a wow factor, something that, while not blatant or over the top, was sexy and hot.

But even before I could go shopping, I needed to have a talk with my guys. I realized that I probably hadn't done as great a job hiding my fear and angst from my guys as I'd have hoped…rather they had assumed that I would come to them when I was ready to let them know what was wrong. So I texted them and asked them if they would like to go on a real date that evening. They both said yes, so during my next class break, I tried to make the arrangements. My attempts to find the perfect date night restaurant were thwarted by the short notice. I wanted to go somewhere nice but not super expensive. Unfortunately that wasn't happening. Finally in a fit of desperation, I called Bubbie Ruth. "Help…I need to take the guys out on a date tonight. We need to have a talk and we need to celebrate. I was trying to, you know, Do it Like A Dude and get us reservations and plan everything. I've got nothing. I was hoping for Amour de La Vie again…it's where we went for our first New York date junior year, but they are closed all weekend for some big family event."

Ruth Mayzer just laughed at me. "First of all take a deep breath and relax. Are you looking for somewhere dressy, or somewhere casual?"

"Kind of in between. I want to wear a nice dress…I want to find a place where we can eat and dance and talk like we did that night." I told her honestly. "Everything has been so crazy that we could so use some down time."

Bubbie was quiet for a long moment. "Alright. I've got a few friends I can call. But you might want to mentally prepare yourself despite what TV would have you believe, the lower upper crust places fill up first."

"I'll wear my prom dress if I have to." I assured her. "We haven't had a date night since we got here and I think we need this. Plus, I may have been shutting them out the last week or two. Not intentionally at all, but I've gotta make it up to them."

"I know. Noah has called me every single day for the last two weeks to see if you'd told me what was wrong. It got so bad, yesterday he had me and poor Mills on a three way conference call to see if you had told us what he and or Sam had done wrong. So do I need to be preparing to help you three turn the boys man cave into a nursery?" She teased.

I groaned. "No…I thought I might have been…but it was apparently just stress, anemia and a slight Vitamin D deficiency."

I could almost hear her nodding. "Which any of the moms in your life could have told you if you'd actually asked. Mae called me dying laughing about how pitiful you were, trying to see if any of them had had any pregnancy dreams without confessing that you were worried that you thought you were pregnant." Bubbie Ruth giggled.

"I was scared." I finally admitted.

Bubbie sighed. "We know you were scared, but what was your plan if the test had been positive? You have a support system…But Hot Chocolate…you have gotta to learn to lean on us when you need to."

"Yeah, but my support system is full of people that I want to make proud and certainly never disappoint." I told her honestly. "I'd have either had to ask y'all not to tell the parents, which would have been wrong, or I would have had to tell the parents myself, which could have easily gotten us in huge trouble even though we've pretty much been following all the rules."

"Which your parents would have taken into consideration. I hope that you believe me when I say that while your parents are hoping that you will not get pregnant before you graduate college, they will understand if you do as long as you were not actively not trying not to get pregnant before you all finish your degrees." Bubbie Ruth said wisely.

I thought about it for a long moment. "You're right. I'm trying so hard to be grown up, but then just when I needed to show maturity, I turned back into a fourteen year old kid."

Bubbie laughed her ass off at me. When she finally caught her breath she assured me that everyone had those moments. "I was married and had been in my own home for years. I'd even had some trouble conceiving and was sure that my mother would be happy for me…and I still had a mini-freak out about telling her. Now you aren't in the same place, so I'm sure that your anxiety was even worse, but I want to make a deal with you. If you have another scare, I want you to promise that you will call and talk to me or you will call and talk to Mae. Either of us will help you and support you no matter what. We will even keep it to ourselves, no questions, no judgment." I felt my eyes fill with tears. I'm very rarely emotional. But that was definitely touching. I promised and thanked her for loving me as well as Grandma Mae. "Mercedes Jones, one day you're gonna realize that you became my grandbaby the second you brought my Noah back from the brink of becoming just another no good, trashy ass Puckerman. Now hang up…I'll call you back when I have you guys some reservations."

As I waited for Bubbie Ruth to work her magic, I allowed my mind to wander to what I could wear if the place was fancier than I'd originally thought of. That mental path led me to trying to think if what I should be looking for to wear for the drop party. I texted Santana, Kurt and Mills, then I considered texting Jamie for a hot minute, but I decided not to. Chances were very good that the shopping trip would involve a lot of talking about what had been going on in my head space over the last couple of weeks, and while Jamie was cool and a good shopping buddy we weren't 'share the pregnancy scare' close. Mills hit me back first. She wouldn't be able to make it. She had three appointments that morning and then she and Saul had plans for the afternoon and evening. However, Santana and Kurt were both in. Kurt's reply text showed me exactly how not well I had hidden my worries from my friends. 'Oh good. I'm glad that you are feeling more like yourself again. We need to find you something smoking hot.'

Santana's response was far more straight-forward. 'Yeah, I'm down and your ass bets to be ready to share with the class WTF is wrong with you. I was about one day from going straight up Snix on you.'

Despite their differing responses, I sent them both the same reply, 'Taking my husbands out for dinner and dancing tonight, will confess all to them. I'll clue you in tomorrow while we shop.'

I'd no sooner hit send than Bubbie Ruth hit me back. 'Alright…you've got eight thirty reservations at The Place, 310 West Fourth Street. Dress is upper end of casual, trendy fashion will work. Then Deborah was able to hook you up with tickets to Girls and Boys at Webster Hall. Take your Columbia IDs…she said something about how you might get something off drinks. You can tell the rest to meet you at Webster Hall…they will love it.'

I couldn't wait. I promised Bubbie that I would be sure to thank her in my Grammy speech and hustled my ass to class. I'd be a little late but it was well worth it. As soon as I could, I texted Noah and Sam that we had eight thirty reservations at a great restaurant in Chelsea. I completely rushed them home after colloquium, kissing them in a flurry of unabashed PDAs on the subway and then commandeered the shower. When I came out, they were both finishing up at the sink. "So it looks like someone has gotten out of their funk." Sam teased as he rinsed the evidence of his five o'clock shadow down the sink.

"Oh, most definitely." I assured him. "I'll tell y'all about it at dinner." I said as I rodded my weave.

Noah pulled me back against his chest. "I'm gonna hold you to that…but just for now…did Sam or Me do anything to have caused said funk?"

I shook my head solemnly. "I promise; this one was all on me. You and Sam didn't do anything wrong."

"Okay." they both said very relieved. Before they got in the shower to get cleaned up, they helped me lotion. I did my makeup and headed to my closet. I dug through my lingerie and decided to go all the way out in the whole sexy factor. I shrugged into a watermelon colored Isabella shelf bra from the Hips & Curves site Felicia had turned me onto with her gift card. I even put in the silicone bumps that would make my breasts assured continued presence in the really demi cups even more precarious. But they increased the 'sit up and beg'-ability of my cleavage. I forwent the matching panties, but added the accompanying garter belt and black, lace top, seam up the back stockings. I wiggled into a black lace and leopard print vintage look pencil dress that stopped about an inch or so above my knees. I grabbed my shoes and purse and headed out into the bedroom for a zip up, which Sam was so happy to give me, pressing kisses to my back as he did so. After I packed the essentials into my adorable MK mini purse, I slid my feet into the matching MK, black leather Hamilton five inch heels I'd spent two hours last August convincing Mom to allow me to bring with me.

I looked over at Sam and Noah and they were both decked out just as nicely. Sam was rocking a deep gray suit with a very light lavender shirt and gun metal and purple tie, while Puck was his chocolate brown suit with a light ivory shirt and rich burgundy tie. "Oh damn, Babygirl you are looking fine as hell tonight." He moaned when I returned from taking the curlers from my hair having brushed it into Bardot waves.

"You are always so beautiful, but tonight you are completely gorgeous." Sam agreed. "I think we're gonna have to drive. If we go on the subway with you looking like that, we'd never make it to the restaurant. We'd end up killing somebody."

I laughed. "We're gonna have to drive anyway…these shoes were not meant for walking."

"So grab some you can dance in and then we need to head out." Puck pointed out. "Traffic is killer."

We headed down and ran into Kurt and Blaine who were heading out for dinner themselves. I told them about the Webster Hall thing and they said they would probably meet us there. I'd never been so grateful that we were so close to the garage as I was that night. Then the happiness just kept coming, the traffic seemed to all be on the other side until we got to about Tenth and then the restaurant had valet so we made it to the Madre D with three minutes to spare. Since we were pretty exactly on time, we were shown right to our table. The restaurant was very pretty, with a sweet, candlelit ambience. They were kind and personable. Our waiter was very attentive and not leery at all.

"Good evening, welcome to The Place. My name is Oliver and I will be your waiter this evening. Would you like to start off with something to drink?"

We place both our drink and appetizer order. Given the nature of the restaurant, I let Sam and Puck have the lead. They ordered me a glass of sparkling water and some sweet iced tea while ordering cokes for both of them. Sam ordered us each a different salad and Noah asked the waiter to bring us an order of the pan seared scallops to share. As he left with our order I told my men the reason I'd been so out of it the two weeks that we'd all been going through some shit. "I'm so sorry that I didn't tell you, but I just…I don't know why I didn't. I guess I just thought that I could save you from worrying too."

Sam sighed. "Mercy…I just don't know what to do with you." He shook his head. "How many times are you gonna try to shoulder all the burdens of the world all by yourself?"

"I…don't mean to." I admitted. "It's just that I don't like to be a burden…"

Noah shook his head. "No, you still worry that everyone is like Berry and only interested in you for what you can do for them, and that they will drop you if you prove to be too much trouble. Well get over it. Cause we aren't going anywhere."

I shook my head. "I'm not worried that you two are going anywhere. But I was worried that I was fucking everything up." I told him, told them both, hoping I could make them understand.

"I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I do know that you can't get yourself pregnant. So it wouldn't have been you 'fucking everything up,' it would have been all of us. And we would have dealt with it." Sam chided. "You can't keep pushing us away to protect your heart Darlin'. You were worried that we'd hear that you were pregnant…and yeah it would ruin the plans we've made…but part of that worry, maybe not even consciously was the wonder if we'd stick with you. You hear how we can't wait until we can have children with you and yet you ain't listening." I started to interrupt but he stopped me. "Now I ain't saying that we're gonna do it anytime soon. I figure twenty-eight to thirty would be a good age to become parents…but if it happens sooner, we're here. If it never happens, we're here. If we have sextuplets, we're here. Get that through your hard head."

I gave them a watery smile as Oliver arrived with our drinks. He quickly sat those down in front of each of us; before placing a scots kale, drake feta and roasted beet salad with heirloom red and golden beets tossed in scots kale set over a roasted sweet potato emulsion with an aged balsamic vinaigrette in front of me, and two arugula salads with shaved parmesan and a mustard seed dressing in front of Sam and Puck. Then he disappeared like smoke only to reappear with three small plates and the pan seared diver scallops which were served over roasted celery-root puree, with crispy prosciutto, Brussels sprout leaves and a port wine reduction. A moment after he turned away, Noah started to smile…then chuckle…then laugh. "I cannot believe that you forgot that the shot was gonna turn off the Crimson Wave. I don't know about Sammy Boy, but I've been waiting on that shit to stop coming for a while because I know Sam and you have some issues with boning during your issue…but your ass forgot."

I looked down at my salad only to have my head snap back up involuntarily as Sam's laughter joined Puck's. "You're both wrong for laughing." I grumbled before I found myself joining the chuckles. We settled in to eat our salad and appetizer talking and chatting.

Sam and Noah caught me up on the things I had missed while I'd been checked out. "Santana was ready to pull out the Chinese water torture to figure out what the hell was going on in your head. Luckily for you Brittany kept distracting her."

"I'll talk to her tomorrow. We've gotta go shopping for me a new dress for the drop party. I don't know what crack I was smoking but there was absolutely no sexy at all in that dress I ordered." I said fiercely.

Puck shrugged. "It will be nice for church, or if you have to sing at a wedding or something."

"The dress is pretty, but it isn't what I expected you to choose for an industry event after everything you said to Anika." Sam concurred. "Could you look for something in red?"

I rolled my eyes. "You don't think that red makes me look like the Koolaid Man?"

Puck's whole face tightened as he frowned. "You look hot in red. It makes you look like cherry covered chocolate...totally edible. But I say make sure it has a neckline like that dress. I get hard as hell every time you lean forward."

Sam nodded. "Oh yeah, and form fitting, gotta get more members for the fan club for Dat Ass." He smirked. "Blaine managed to get the club a presence on Twitter, Instagram and FaceBook already."

"You have gotta be kidding me." I groaned.

They both shook their heads. "That blogger who mistook you from Nikki Minaj when we met with Lyor over Christmas break, he was the first non-McKinley Member." Noah said with a puckish grin.

Probably I would have thrown a piece of beet at him, but Oliver popped back up to take our entree orders. Noah looked things over and smiled. "The Scallops were great, so we might as well continue with the seafood theme. How is the seafood chowder?"

"It is wonderful tonight. Often I find that it has a little too much potato in it, but tonight the delivery was short on potatoes, so it is absolutely perfect." Oliver said with a smile.

"Cool. Is there a way we can get one bowl and three spoons, we'll share? Our boo will have the fettuccini, Sam," he gestured at our shared man, "will have the pork medallions, and I'll have the strip steak." He finished.

"Very well…" Oliver seemed a little thrown from the whole 'our boo' thing but he didn't let it stop him from being professional. "And can I go ahead and put in your dessert or we can wait until you see if you're going to have room?"

Sam, Noah and I exchanged looks. I let them have the decision. They were running this part of the evening, I'd made the arrangements and I'd be paying from my separate account, but they seemed to have enjoyed making the decisions on the other two courses. Finally Sam spoke up. "We'll go ahead and order dessert now. Can you please bring us the bread pudding with three spoons?"

Oliver nodded and made a suggestion. "If you like traditional bread pudding, you will probably enjoy ours, but I find it even better when with paired with the crème brulee."

Noah and I nodded and Sam added it to the order and we continued to chat and talk while we finished our salads. "So Webster Hall is supposed to be iconic. What is 'Girls and Boys' though?" Puck asked with a grin.

"It's the Friday night Club night…they have Pop Rox in the Marlin room and Hip Hop and Reggae in the Balcony lounge." I told them. "I looked it up after Bubbie told me that we had tickets. Are we going to go home so you guys can change?"

"I thought about you poor feet dancing in those heels, but I didn't think about the fact that we probably wouldn't want to go to the club in suits." Puck admitted.

Sam shrugged. "I guess we can go and change. I doubt clubs here get going before eleven or twelve." That was easily agreed on. "So Mercy, Baby…what else haven't you told us?"

I smirked. I'd been hoping for an opening like that all night. "Well," I started, getting my last bit of the delicious salad on my fork, "I left the panties that match my bra in my lingerie chest." I quickly put the food into my mouth as both of their jaws dropped open. They both knew that I would never wear panties that didn't match on a night out. "Oh, but I am wearing the matching garter belt."

"Oi, you are a cheeky little monkey aren't you?" Sam broke out his best English accent.

Puck just licked his lips and looked around. I stopped him before he could put his thoughts into action. "Do not even try what you're thinking about doing. Even if you get under the table without anyone seeing you, my dress might actually be even tighter than the one I had on for the performance…so there is no way you can possibly get your mouth on my lady parts."

He full on pouted, but any comment he might have made was cut off by the arrival of Oliver and a bus boy to clear the table. as soon as we were alone again, he shot back, "you cannot tell me shit like 'I'm not wearing any panties' and then tell me I can't get down and lick the kitty cat." He chastised.

"Eat the expensive ass, culinary masterpieces that are being served to you by Oliver. You can eat me later." I teased.

"I wanna eat you now and later." Puck told me his voice ringing with honesty.

Sam laughed. "Let's just keep it real…when don't we want to eat her. I'm sitting here thinking, wow this salad dressing tastes amazing, but it would taste even better if Mercy would let me lick it off her titties."

My face was infused with heat, but it got even hotter when Oliver made his presence known as he checked our drink levels and replaced the silverware we'd already used. Thankfully he was a consummate professional and just told us that our dinner would be out shortly. When he walked away I glared at both of my men. "I cannot believe you two just did that to that poor guy."

They looked at each other across the table. "Oh Darlin', I'm looking at this very romantic restaurant, trust and believe that he has probably heard a lot worst."

"Yeah, Sammy Boy's right. Besides, you brought us here looking like that, smelling all good…you had to be trying to seduce us. Well congratulations…you succeeded." Puck smirked over at me. "You can't get mad at us for wanting you, when you went out of your way to make damn sure we wanted you more than ever."

"Why is it that every time you tell me you want me you always add that 'more than ever'." I was really just curious. Even after a year and a half, there was still plenty about my men that I had to learn. Part of me wondered if I would ever stop learning new and interesting things about the way they thought.

"Because every day with you we fall just a little deeper in love with you." Sam explained reasonably.

"Yeah," Noah agreed. "Plus there is the fact that every time we make love its better than the time before…so every time we want you a little bit more."

Boy logic was kind of baffling but I accepted the compliment in the spirit with which it was given. I reached over and took both their hands trying to convey my happiness with a gentle squeeze to each. "Well then I want the two of you more each and every single day too."

Of course that was when Oliver showed up with our entrees. If he was even half as embarrassed at the conversational turns he kept walking into, I was going to have to tip him really, really well. I was served first. The plate he put in front of me was awesome looking. A bed of homemade fettuccine covered with several large tiger shrimp all served with shallots, wild mushrooms, green peas, pancetta and cherry tomatoes that had been tossed in a rich Chablis and Maine lobster broth. Sam's dinner was every bit as appealing. He was given a plate of sliced Idaho potato with a sautéed red cabbage hash of currants, toasted almonds and wild mushrooms and a dijon mustard reduction on top of which sat three medallions of pork loin glazed and roasted with honey. Puck's dinner was the last to be set down. He had ordered the char-grilled NY Angus strip steak, medium rare and it came with a potato pie that had gruyere, parmesan, cheddar and chives inside, plus wilted baby spinach and a natural jus. The seafood and petit pan squash chowder, which Oliver made sure to put in the center of the table with three soup spoons, was filled with Scottish salmon, lobster, calamari, shrimp, clams, mussels, and a smattering of cubed new potatoes in a herbed, fragrant broth. It was thick, rich and warm…perfectly seasoned, just like all three of the entrees and the scallops.

By the time dessert came, I was fully ready to make 'The Place' our place, but Sam and Noah both reminded me that we were in a city known for its culinary scene as much as its fashion scene. They were right. While 'The Place' was really good, there were tons more that we could try on for size. The spiced pumpkin bread pudding with its accompanying Tahitian vanilla ice cream and a ginger crème anglaise and the traditional crème brulee with lavender essence were both amazing and to be honest if our entrees had been any bigger, it would have all been too much...but as it was we were pleasantly full. The only thing that caused Oliver any visible shock at all evening was when I took the check and handled it. I was pleasantly surprised to note that the total was actually under two hundred for all three of us. I rounded it up to two fifty including his tip and we gathered our things and headed to the valet.

One think I really loved about New York was the fact that everywhere took credit or debit cards…even valets. But I did have to admit that given the rates, I was really glad that we were going to leave the Tahoe in the garage and take the train back to Webster Hall. We made it back to the house around eleven and Sam and Noah traded their suits for some club appropriate dark wash jeans and respective dark blue and light gray pullovers. I traded my five inch Michael Kors for a pair of cute suede leopard print MK ballet flats that Kurt had given me when he was apologizing for ditching me two years before. I toned down my look a little since I'd lost the heels and we were back out the door by eleven thirty.

Webster Hall was every bit as cool looking as one would have expected. When we got there, Kurt and Blaine, Santana and Brittany were already waiting on us. Artie had flaked out on us in favor of completing a huge project for his film theory class. The club wasn't super huge, but it was really cool. It looked pretty much like one would imagine. It actually looked quite a bit like a harder, grittier version of Club Exxcess, only Kurt and Blaine and Santana and Britts weren't the only same sex couples making out on the dance floor. Hell, Sam, Puck and me weren't the only trio out there. It was fucking awesome not to be stared at or commented on. To just be three lovers dancing and making out in a club like any other kids our age. We didn't leave the Hall until almost six.

We lucked out and there was a bagel place that was open and serving breakfast between the club and the subway station. Even Kurt ate like he was starving…when we made it home; we showered to rid ourselves of the sweat from dancing and the smell of the club fell into bed and made love until we literally couldn't stay awake any longer. That night was exactly like I'd imagined living in New York would be, I felt like I'd glimpsed the future and the future was good.

**Thrift Shop (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis)**  
><em>Santana PoV<em>

We didn't get home until around the time we had originally planned to get up to go shopping for Mercedes' 'gots ta be better than the one she originally picked out' dress. Artie was just finishing showering after pulling an all-nighter and he was good enough to wait on us to get into the bed. Sex with Artie is always fucking boss. He was creative and he was commanding…but not irritatingly so. He knew how to follow a command with something that would show me that he held me as his equal. His dick was big enough to always be a good ride and the things that boy could do with his fingers and mouth were actual and factual works of fucking art. Plus, he wasn't adverse to cuddling after and drifting off to sleep without showering again after sex. So after fucking ourselves into a coma, what was supposed to be a morning spent shopping became an afternoon spent shopping.

As soon as we got out of the house, I turned to Mercedes and growled. "Your ass betta not be pregnant." Pregnancy had been the worst case scenario in my head for her mental absence and, to be honest, bad attitude the preceding few weeks.

She shook her head. "Not pregnant…but I was scared as hell that I was. I didn't get even the smallest hint of a period…and it scared me."

"Shit, was that all…I haven't had a period since I was sixteen. The shot did away with that messy bitch after I was on it for about a year." I told her with a grin. "So you got all scared and didn't bother talking to anybody about it? What the fuck is wrong with you? What the fuck are we all living together and shit for if you're not gonna fucking let us help your ol' prideful ass when you need it? I'm trying to figure out how the fuck we were going to manage you having a baby already without fucking up the school shit. I almost called my Tia Dominiqua to see if she felt like being a nanny again."

Kurt just looked relieved. Probably a bit of that relief was that I stayed in English for my whole rant, but mostly because the problem was something simple and had already been resolved. "I'm a little sad. I saw the cutest little baby Burberry trench the other day." He joked. "To be honest I kind of thought that you were upset by those Bs you got. That or I was worried that you had run yourself into the ground and were suffering some weird exhaustion/depression hybrid emotional state."

"Well, I'm not pregnant. I do have to take a multivitamin everyday 'cause I have some moderate anemia, and I have to get more sunlight. Anemia causes fatigue and, apparently, Vitamin D deficiency causes anxiety which I'm totally claiming as my excuse for going a little crazy with the whole pregnancy scare thing." Mercedes told us with a grin.

I gave her a side eye… "Hold up…back up. How the hell are you supposed to get more sun? We live in a city where if a building doesn't fully attempt to blot out the sun, you almost can't get the permits. Then there is your schedule, you're either in class or on the subway going to class or you're in the studio or you're on your way to the studio…sunlight is for people who don't have shit to do."

I could see that they agreed but they both still wanted to come up with some idea that would fix the problem. "You know, we could probably walk to Loehmann's, check them out and then take the subway to some of the boutiques downtown." Kurt suggested. It seemed like a good idea. Only problem was that they didn't have shit that looked like Mercedes Jones. I mean, I found like three dresses and Kurt found some cute shirts, but Mercy left empty handed. Per the recommendation of one of the ladies we met in the racks at Loehmann's we took the train to Hell's Kitchen and checked out a place called Monif C's. But that place was way too Coco Austin and nowhere near Mercedes Jones. However the store's owner Monifa Clark was totally cool and she sent us over to Fashion to Figure. We found Cedes some cute date night shit there, but nothing that made us just say 'yeah, that's the one'. However the chick checking us out…literally and figuratively hipped us to Lee Lee's Valise. Now that shop was all the way in Brooklyn, but Cedes left there with three new skirts, a new dress, some leggings and an incredible antiqued silver medallion necklace that she was determined was going to go with the dress she was going to find. The store clerk helped her find some earrings to match too.

After that we tried the big three; Macy's, Barney's and Bloomingdales. For the most part we'd all gotten our clothes not long after we'd received the invitations. Apparently when you held a record release party you invited everyone associated with the acts, including friends and family and any known fan group. Still Kurt was looking for something fashion forward to wear. He wanted to be the best dressed gay at the ball. I really like to shop and the money my Mami had transferred into my account when she learned about the shopping trip was burning a hole in my sexy as hell Calvin Klein tote bag…so we each bought something in all three. Of course our happy, carefree day of shopping ended up pissing off some jealous rent-a-cop or broke ass store clerk who decided to have us stopped since we could afford their shit and they couldn't even with their employee discount. I got stopped and harassed by NYPD after Barney's and Cedes got her turn after Bloomies. So since we were kind of pissed off after that bullshit, especially since we'd been flying pretty fucking high having found her the perfect shoes and those bitches being on sale, we decided to break for what was technically dinner…but really just lunch. Once we were full and a lot calmer, we found Avenue.

Avenue was apparently the NYC predecessor for Lane Bryant. They had some cute stuff, but to be honest it had been six hours, like five or six trains, we had at least four or five bags each, and our significant others were about ready to send out the hounds…we were tired as hell. The fucking outfit was definitely coming together. We had found shoes. We had found jewelry. We had even found lingerie…we just hadn't found the perfect dress. Then we started combing the racks at Avenue. Now over the course of the shopping excursion, Aretha had let slip certain things we needed to know about the dress. She really wanted a bold color, red or a nice royal blue or purple. She wanted to find something that made the most of her curves, that caressed the borders between subtle and overt sexuality. Given the statement piece she had chose for her necklace, we'd need either a deep v neck or a high boatneck…I immediately ditched the idea of a boat neck. When you had the ability to create cleavage like my chica Mercedes, it was a crime against God not to do so whenever called for.

Finally we found three choices. One was a champagne colored, sequined mesh sheath dress with a kind of high collar and cap sleeves. While it looked great against her skin it was still really demure. The next dress was a gorgeous illusion lace cocktail dress that would skim her curves deliciously. It was a deep rose that looked almost like a metallic red. The metallic look lace was laid over an opaque silk sheath that covered from cleavage down to mid thigh. That dress made Cedes' ass look like candy. But it didn't work with the accessories that we'd already bought…so while she bought it, it wasn't the dress for the event we were trying to dress her for. The final dress she came out in was absolutely perfect. It was a bright, bold cherry red, had a wide, semi-deep v neckline with pin-tuck detailing and sleeves that would stop at her elbows. It was ruched from right under her breasts down to the knee length hem, which Kurt immediately decided needed to be brought up to mid thigh. In fact other than the sleeves, the only part of the dress that weren't ruched or pleated looking was the material that would cover her actual tits. That shit was going to make her already huge bazoongas look even bigger.

When we checked out, I was shocked and appalled when she had each dress rung up separately. Then she explained. "Mrs. Abrams told me to always get industry event clothing I bought myself on a separate receipt so that I could claim it as a work related expense."

"Damn, I wanna be like you when I grow the hell up." I teased. "But right now I just want to get our asses home. I cannot believe we've been shopping for like seven or eight hours, after only getting like three or four hours of sleep."

"Oh I can believe we did it…I just can't believe we didn't kill each other." Kurt returned with a chuckle.

We got home ate dinner and crashed…hard. The next week or so flew and crawled by. I've gotta confess school, even school I wanted to go to, bored the fuck out of me. If I hadn't had Artie and Britts keeping my ass going, I know that I would have dropped out. My grades weren't the problem, I just didn't like going to class and taking notes and all that shit. But with all of us together it became a fucking pride thing. If fucking Puck was sticking things out, my ass had no choice at all. I had to stay in school and go to class and bust those fuckers out the water with the level of knowledge this Midwestern Latina brought to their world. With everything that was going on in the house though, it made shit outside of class time fly by. That last week before Thanksgiving was no different.

Monday through Thursday we were living in the land of the college student. Friday, after classes, we had dinner together for what seemed like the first time in a while. Then we all vegged out on the couches in Commune and Klaine's family room and binge watched 'The Originals'. That show rocked for all of us. It had fine ass men…so the girls and Klaine were happy. It had vampires so Sam and Robonerd were happy. And Puck was happy because 'Retha got all hot and bothered watching the sexy vampires. Saturday was a wash; Mercedes spent all fucking day at Ricki's getting her weave redone. Art-man, Britts and I dropped her off while we were on our way to Costco's. It was our turn to buy toilet paper and paper towels for the house. Between the two halves of the duplex, we had like seven and a half bathrooms; we went through an entire assload of fucking Charmin. Every month each triad or Klaine was responsible for going to either Sam's Club or Costco and stocking up for the next month.

Walking through the big box store was fun as hell. There was a plethora of different samples and it was totally worth skipping breakfast to have room for all the free food. While we were there we also grabbed two bags of every type of freezer fruit and veggies and all the crap Cedes and Kurt needed to make the smoothies they had gotten us all addicted to. They usually bought whole fruits and berries from some super toi-toi restaurant supplying uber marketplace, then they cleaned them and cut them all up and froze them in ziplock bags…but life had become entirely too hectic. Nobody had time for all that shit. I wish the rest of the weekend was more exciting, but it was filled with shopping, cleaning and working on our projects. The only fun we had that whole day was boning. Sunday we had to go and pick up my parents and the Abrams. The Pierces would arrive early Wednesday morning.

Monday, after classes, Mami and Gwen went with 'Retha, Brittany and me to do a spa evening. We started immediately after classes with massages at the Harlem Holistic Health Center. Alexson was recommended by Sue….and by recommended I mean she had told us that if we allowed anyone other than him to massage one of her Cheerios she would fly to New York and kick our asses. We weren't sure if having baby Jean to look after changed that or not. We decided not to risk it. Then we went to Harlem Skin Clinic, they had some seriously clean waxing stations and the ladies, and one lady-man, were really awesome at their job. I got one chick named Giselle and while she couldn't make the process completely painless, she was almost as good as Greta back in Lima. Facials, and waxing of the legs, eyebrows, pits, and full Brazilians for five and we were still out of there in time to meet the dads and the guys for dinner at the Harlem Tavern pretty close to the salon.

The next day it was back to freaking classes. Though Mami came down to campus and had lunch with me. It was nice. We talked and it was a little weird because she was kind of talking to me like I was another adult. Which turned all kinds of wrong when she asked me if I thought it was a good idea to finish off the basement for a 'playroom'.

"Oh God. Please tell me you didn't read that crappy ass Fifty Shades book." I groaned.

"It wasn't that bad." She defended.

I rolled my eyes. "Getting food poisoning from eating a hole-in-the-wall brunch place and not being able to leave the fucking bathroom for two days was better than that book. That broad got laid less than the Hobbit and someone let her write a book not just about boning, but about naughty BDSM boning. She probably hasn't even tried anything more than vanilla, but she's gonna write a book about it? And what was up with the gold digging ho that was supposed to be a likable female protagonist? I mean, don't get me wrong, with the kind of bank that Christian dude had, I'd give him the old virginity too, but shit, she could have at least committed to the lifestyle he wanted to live rather than just reluctantly going along with it. You know if some dude had written that basura, NOW and every other pro-woman organization would be all up his ass."

Mami looked a little surprised. "You've made some good points there, a few of which…I've got to admit, that I'm not sure I'm comfortable you are able to make."

"Oh you mean like the fact that Christian Gray was way too damaged to ever be someone's damn dom…that was just asking sexy times to become abuse. Or how about Little Miss Steele aka Anastasia Save-a-ho… 'I'm so sure that my love for Christian can make him whole'. No. Intensive counseling can make him whole. Your love can make him try to bury that shit as if it will just miraculously get better just for it to all blow the hell up later on." I smirked. "I know that and I haven't even had freshman psych yet."

Mom just laughed. "Anyway, I want my own playroom…not a dumb ass knock off of the 'red room of pain' or whatever. Pain has never been something I've enjoyed causing…not the physical kind anyway."

I shrugged and let it go. We changed subjects and had a great lunch. I was tempted to blow off my afternoon classes, but Mom wanted to take Gwen shopping. Mami was going to get Gwen to buy something better than anything she brought with her to wear to Wheezy, Trouty and Puck's party. Mami was serious about forcing Gwen out of her dowdy hell. She refused to have an in-law who dressed only slightly better than Man-Hands. For a change Kurt and I got home around the same time and we went immediately in 'get Cedes and her boos ready and out the door on time' mode. We girls and Kurt took over Commune's suite. By the time we got there Mercedes was showered and moisturized and walking around in her lingerie, a black satin and red lace contour bra and the matching panties. Her dress, shaper slip and jewelry was laid out on the bed. Her hair was still in curlers. Brittany and I helped her into her shaper slip. That shit was no joke at all. But it turned her curves from 'va va va voom' to straight 'oh my damn'. Kurt took over taking care of her makeup. He kept it light and natural with silver on her lids, and champagne gloss on her lips. As he worked his brushes and creams, he told we all talked through the setup for the day. "Okay. Anika said that all the outfits were on site. I know that Christope is ready to buy copies of the soundtrack to send to everyone he knows in the entire United Kingdom just based on your sound check from this afternoon."

"You guys are heading out at eight thirty, we'll head over after we all have a chance to get dresses, so we should be out the door by nine fifteen, since Artie, Boy Berry and the Parents know to be dressed by the time we finish up with you." I added as I took down her hair and turned her middle of the back length weave into sideswept bangs and Farrah Fawcett feathered flips. We got her zipped into the dress and just as I'd known she looked fucking awesome.

Brittany was the only one with the patience to help her put on all the antiqued silver bangles that had to go on both of Mercedes' arms. "I'm a little sad that we won't be singing with you though." Brittany admitted.

"I'm not. I'm going to be able to enjoy the whole thing. Rub elbows with some big wigs. See what buzz I can hear and what buzz I can direct." I told my girl with a wicked grin. "By the time I'm done, all the merch will be gone and folks will be beggin' for a KAMA album too."

Mercedes laughed and started to don her earrings for the evening. "Ooh, you got your nails done. They are gorgeous." Britts cooed drawing my attention over to her ears where she was slipping in the intricate antique silver drop earrings. I finished fastening the necklace into place as Mercedes laughed.

"Yeah, didn't eat lunch, but my mani and pedi are on point." Cedes laughed showing off her simple fire engine red finger and toe nails. She straightened the medallion so that it was perfectly placed to draw the eye to her amazing tits. Her nerves started jumping and she started restating shit we already knew. "What time is it? Deborah said that the limo would be here at eight thirty." She said looking around for the clock. "Text Sam and Puck and tell them to come on and get dressed." 'Retha commanded imperiously when she realized that the car service would be there in forty-five minutes.

As Kurt left to get dressed himself, I helped Cedes trade her purses to the Michael Kors silver clutch her mother had given her before we left Lima. Sometime I got really jealous about how Mercedes mom would give her shit before it was completely out of style…my mother really only wanted to share if I was willing to dress like her mini-me. Danica Jones shared the wealth without putting caveats on it. The worst part was that I always looked freaking amazing when I let Mami play dress up. Granted there wasn't really anytime that I didn't look hot as fire… so that was too much of a leap. Sam and Puck came up took quick ass showers, shaved, brushed their teeth, threw on the clothes Kurt had pulled out for them based on previous conversations and everyone went down to the ground floor. I loved the fact that Mercedes had her six inch high, Michael Kors Milan peep toe, black, glittery evening pumps in her hands. She was wearing a pair of the roll up and stuff in the clutch flats to wear until they got there.

Deborah had managed to get four extra early admission tickets for the event. Since our parents were already scheduled to be there and we wanted to go with them…I full on wanted to see what Gwen's makeover ended up looking like… the extra tickets had gone to Bubbie Ruth and Klaine. Kurt and Blaine rode with them and Bubbie and her date were meeting them there. As I got dressed I reminded myself to remind Mercedes and Puck, before they left the next morning, to drop some 'bows on Finnessa for fucking over Zizes. Puffy Moobs was really stupid. He'd ruined the best thing that he had going for him. So sad. The only thing sadder was that I wasn't going home for Thanksgiving so that I could kick him in the balls on principal. Thinking about that made my head and heart hurt, so I shook that shit off as Artie, Britts and the Parents headed down to the Beacon Theatre for the SongBird party. We could do a post mortem of the event before they pulled out the next morning…or maybe after they got back. None of us had class Wednesday and Britts parents were planning on riding the train to the house since they were coming in so early…that was a clear sign that we needed to gets our morning fuck on.

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><p>Next up the Record Release Party &amp; a peek in at the other gleeks for Thanksgiving.<p>

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And pictures of all the fashion are available in the Yahoo Group.

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>Anni<p> 


	5. You Raise Me Up, Where Its At, & Glory

**Les Âmes Soeurs**  
>AnniKay<p>

Sam/Mercedes/Puck  
>Disclaimer: I own Nothing…Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennen along with Fox and others own this fandom and all the characters there in…Anything you recognize obviously belongs to them<br>******THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****  
><strong>The more I hear about this last season of** Glee **the more I realize that it is a very good thing I'm not still watching. RIB and his writers can each collectively and individually kiss my big black ass.** SamCedes is EndGame. **If they can't see that then they need new, not stupid, eyes.**  
>Thank all of you for being avid readers &amp; reviewers of my stories <strong>

**Special thanks to KayBee80 & Illiandyanndra who have been Beta rock stars for all of my ten stories**

**Summary: **The gang has moved to New York. College and career are on the horizon…Are the Original New Directions ready for what all the future holds?  
><strong>AN:<strong> _Many of KAMA's songs are real songs recorded by artists in the past. Please check out the Yahoo Group for a full listing of the correct singers, songwriters and other necessary information._ The song used in this chapter as the KAMA song from the SongBird soundtrack is 'The Fighter' by Gym Class Heroes.

* * *

><p><strong>You Raise Me Up (Josh Groban)<br>**_Bubbie Ruth PoV_

Having Noah and his friends in the same city as me had really turned my life from one of boredom punctuated by moments of great sexual adventure to one of overall adventure punctuated by moments of great sexual adventure. In making the arrangements for the kids to have their post pregnancy scare date, I'd reconnected with a gentleman I'd dated years before when he was working as a model to save money to go to a special pastry school in Paris. Roman was now the lead pastry chef at The Place, and during our discussion I invited him to be my guest at the soundtrack release party. He arrived at my place looking better than ever. At almost thirty, Roman Manaso was even finer than he had been at twenty one. He was just under six foot four with muscles that had muscles. His hair was long, hella long. I was certainly not ending the night without running my hands through that water fall of chocolate locks. He was dressed impeccably in a tailored black suit with matching black shirt and tie. For the decade I had known him, he'd always preferred to wear black. Back in the day he'd often told me that it was because he couldn't clash with my ever changing rainbow of colors.

"You look amazing Ruth Mayzer. You seem to get younger every time I see you. So how did you get your hands on tickets to what the buzz says is one of the biggest soundtrack release party of the year?" He asked me after giving a kiss that clearly told me that he was looking forward to us having a private after party as much as I was. I told him the back story of my grandson and his honeys and their friends. "Wow, you must be very proud."

"Roman, if my pride got any bigger I'd have to avoid all heights and stairs." We shared a chuckle. "So how have you been? Last time I ran into you, you were dating that pretty French girl."

He rolled his eyes. "Analiese was quite happy to benefit from all that I learned in your bed, but once she met you she became convinced that since you were more mature and far more beautiful you'd steal me away…" He shrugged, "... and I never _could_ abide that kind of insecurity." Roman shook his head. "Granted, if you wanted a serious relationship I'd be very happy to apply for the job…but I know better than to hang my heart on that star."

I patted his bare cheek sliding my thumb over the silky hair of his goatee. "Oh darling, first of all I would never let you. You are singularly handsome, tall, intelligent and an amazing cook. Your DNA must be passed on and I am light years beyond my ability to do so. Besides, my heart is waiting for me on the other side."

"It is too bad that you don't have another daughter." He teased. As we made our way to the Theater, we talked and caught up on the past. The more I talked to him, the more I was sure that I needed to invite him to as many family events as I could. Something told me that it would definitely benefit my young friend.

I've been in the television industry for almost thirty years, and attended more industry parties than I even wanted to consider, but not a single one of them had prepared me for my first music industry party. First of all, there was a real red carpet and a whole lot more photogs. Second of all, the event was far more fashion forward than the usual television event. I was wearing a vintage black on white polka dot, Oscar de la Renta cocktail dress with an asymmetrical shawl collar, faux wrap draped hemline and a white black belt. I needed more color, so I'd accessorized the dress with my favorite pair of red patent leather Jimmy Choos, its matching clutch and some eye catching red jewelry…but for once I wasn't the most fabulously dressed woman in the room. The Beacon Theatre had been made even more beautiful, the Baroque décor played up with sensual looking decorations that alluded to the sexuality inherent in R&B music. The concession stands were all offering merchandise for the movie and copies of the soundtrack. There was an entire cadre of young servers walking around with platters of hors d'oeuvres and champagne.

We'd arrived just in time to beat the actual stars and got to see the arrival of the kids; Noah was looking very understated and cool. I was almost shocked to see that he had shed his Mohawk. "He's finally accepted himself." I murmured before turning to Roman. "Keep me away from any stairs." I teased.

"Proud grandmother just got even prouder." He said with a grin. "His girl is very pretty."

I laughed. "You can say it. Noah's 'Sexy Mama' is a hot little thing." I grinned. She very much was; in her flame red dress and sky high heels, she looked every bit the sexy songstress…her cleavage was making me wish for the first time in a very long while that I had met her first. "His boyfriend is just as hot." I said with a smile. Sam was just as sexy in his black and white too. "I think they decided to let Mercy have the bulk of the attention tonight."

"Good luck with that. There is something about the three of them together that you can't take your eyes off of." Roman smiled. "He has your charisma and sensuality. She has an understated sexuality that is almost palpable and their boyfriend catches every eye that would overlook the other two. If their voices are at all that you say…they are going to go very far. Check them out, the photographers are loving them."

I smiled proudly as Noah, Cede and Sam waved at us. Blaine joined us, but Kurt went with the trio to get changed for their opening performance. While talking with Blaine, we saw the arrival of Anthony Hamilton, David Banner, Rascal Flatts, Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride and Common. Not long thereafter Jill Scott arrived wearing a darling 'LBD' that highlighted her beautiful curves and showed off a cleavage that was definitely awe inspiring. "If I were straight, Mercedes and Jill Scott would so be my type." Blaine whispered to Roman and my amusement.

We helped ourselves to the amazingly delightful herb roasted scallops wrapped in prosciutto. The next hostess to pass was carrying crab salad canapés. She was followed by a black clad gentleman carrying flutes of champagne and he explained that there was an open bar near the interior ticket booth. Neither Roman nor I said anything when Blaine easily took a glass of champagne as well. As we talked, we made our way to the concession area and each bought several copies of the CD. I was happy to see that it came with a digital version that I would easily be able to add to my MP3 player. I made sure to get a copy for Robin Roberts. She loved music and particularly loved Jill Scott. I knew that she wasn't currently able to do much shopping, so whenever I saw something she or Amber would like I tried to pick it up for them. Besides we wanted to get the numbers up on that CD if at all possible, to show the head honchos that they were right for putting their faith into our family.

Near the concession stand there were several displays offering more of the delightful hors d'oeuvres. I noted several that I would eventually try and love that evening, including the tamari and maple-roasted almonds, mini Asian crab cakes, lemon-parsley gougeres, potato pancakes with gravlax and Dill, pork, spinach and artichoke filled pot stickers, and large arrangements of shrimp cocktail with both the expected cocktail sauce and Japanese 'Yum Yum' sauce.

I also got a copy for Ryan Seacrest and the guys who selected the acts for Good Morning America and the New Year's Eve show. There was nothing I wouldn't do to help those three be successful and if giving their music to a few people who might help them move to the next level would help, that was exactly what I was going to do. When I looked askance at Roman, he shrugged. "Ben Ratliff loves my baumkuchen. Next time he orders it, I'll send this to him."

"Wow…that's great." Blaine smiled.

I just chuckled and leaned close to him. "You do know that I was planning on sleeping with you tonight already, right?"

Roman threw back his head and laughed. "I thought so, it would be rude to fully assume…still want to stay on your good side. Maybe I can get a repeat performance again before eight more years pass."

It was my turn to laugh, but before I could retort, Blaine was waving over the rest of their gang. Marisol reached us first and I greeted her warmly. Despite the fact that they could each be as abrasive as sandpaper, I really liked both of the Lopez girls. Marisol looked very chic in a white halter cocktail dress with a layered skirt and black detailing in the form of piping around the hem of the three layers of the skirt. The dress and black starburst clutch were both Halston, authentic and very envogue for the season. Her shoes were almond toed ultra-high heels in black with and adorable ankle strap. Rather than dragging Santiago in her wake, she was forcing a barely recognizable Gwen Abrams to keep up with her. Gwen was wearing a very cute, very conservative, Elie Tahari floral print sheath. Her heels were far lower than Marisol's and while they were D'Orsay evening pumps I could see the mark of Gwen's frugality in the fact that they weren't a brand I recognized easily. Not that I only bought the higher end stuff myself, I had simply trained myself to recognize them because it made me one of the best in my field. The shoes were very cute and I really did think that Marisol, who quickly took credit for the makeover, had done a great job.

Santiago and Roger shortly joined us, followed by Artie, Santana and Brittany. I would never admit it out loud, but men's fashion was very pretty boring. That's where 'the man makes the clothes' saying probably came from, unless the man in the suit is exceptional, a suit is just a suit. Blaine and Artie stood out from the dads because both Santiago and Roger were wearing suits and the boys were wearing slacks and a cute, grey, retro cut jacket in Artie's case and a red and black plaid blazer in Blaine's…but Tana and Brittany, they were both done up nicely. It was almost a little weird to see Santana all dressed up and she not be in red. But I knew without asking that she'd done it for Mercedes. Instead she was in a beautiful royal blue, lace mini dress with three quarter length belled sleeves. She had pulled her hair back into a sleek low ponytail that made her bold makeup look even more gorgeous. "The line out there for general admission is ridiculous." Santana crowed as soon as she was close enough. Then her eyes caught Roman. "I didn't think it was possible for there to be a man finer than Mr. Martinez…but you may actually be finer than I really believed was humanly possible." She quickly turned to me. "I want to be like you when I'm old."

Brittany poked her girlfriend in the side. "You won't be…because unless something happens to me and Artie, you're taken until the day you die." We all shared a small laugh at that as I assessed Brittany's outfit. My first thought was that despite the fierceness of her dress, she had to have been cold. She was wearing a white, floor length, strapless, notched neckline dress from BCBGMAXAZRIA's Alyce line. To tone down the white, her blonde hair was down around her shoulders barely curled under at the ends. She was wearing black heels with silver brocade patterns on the front. They were cute, but seemed a little more Gwen's style than Brittany. However they looked great with the clutch she had chosen a silver and black box clutch that I was almost positive was from Badgley Mischka's spring line."

The three of us who had already made our purchases waited while the new arrivals bought their CDs, and other merchandise, including copies and tee shirts for all the other parents in Amicitiae Amore as well as Shelby, Sue and Shannon. While we were waiting I decided to grab some for Neil and Francesca. "Did you guys see Saul and Mills in the line?"

"Speak of the Devil and he shall appear, Mom." Saul said as he and Mills joined us. "We got in line just in time…it's wrapped around the building out there." My son hadn't bothered with a suit. Instead he was wearing a pair of straight leg jeans, a graphic tee and a black leather jacket.

"I'm just glad we made it inside at all. This theatre only seats twenty eight hundred." Mills laughed charmingly. Introductions were made as our party was finally complete. The house's tenants were invited, but they would probably hang out together if they were able to come. Mills looked darling and as fashionable as I had come to expect in a black, art silk, blouson jumpsuit. My newest daughter already knew me well. She lifted her hem and showed me her adorable silver satin, peep toe super high pumps with their rhinestone studded ankle strap. Her cute little clutch matched the ankle strap rather than the main part of the shoe. Her hair was completely straight down her back and around her shoulders and the only jewelry she wore other than her wedding set was a pair of simple diamond drop earrings.

Since the event staff was still walking around with trays and platters, we enjoyed some more of the delicious hors d'oeuvres that were being offered as well as the lovely champagne. We watched those around us and discussed the fashion of the stars that had arrived and Santana and Marisol had fun dissecting the clothing of the 'lesser mortals' that were attending as well. Brittany, Artie, Mills and Saul all chatted with others around them as well; charming several of the attendees and networking with those they conversed with. I saw both Mills and Saul passing out business cards and making several new contacts.

At ten everyone was ushered into the theatre proper. Thankfully Anika and Christophe had reserved seating for all of us very near the front. The only people ahead of us were radio and internet contest winners and directly behind us were some of the other artists, Warner Film and Music big wigs. Even with the work I've done and the attempts I've always made to be good and kind to people who come through the ABC studios, it was still totally surreal when Anthony Hamilton, who hadn't been in one of my chairs in over a year leaned forward and tapped my shoulder. "Ms. Ruth, I thought that was you. How are you doin'?"

"I'm doing great tonight, Mr. Hamilton." I told him with a huge smile. "I love that jacket." I told him honestly. The charcoal gray distressed looking suede blazer was adorable.

"So are you here for work?" he asked with a toothy grin.

I shook my head. "Nope. The new group, KAMA, is actually comprised of my daughter's eldest and his loves. We're here to support them. Mercedes is the girl everyone is talking about who came from nowhere to play Ms. Scott's daughter in the movie."

"You've gotta be about fit to burst with pride." He laughed. I agreed but we were silenced by the arrival of the MC on the stage.

The MC reminded us of the reason we were there and that if we enjoyed the music we should avail ourselves of the concession stand and get the CD. Then he introduced KAMA by telling everyone that they had premiered at the Warner Halloween party and were really amazingly talented. Per the vibe in the room and the MC's admonition the theatre erupted in applause. The massive red curtains opened and revealed the kids standing in front of a huge band. The band was decked out in all black and seemed to have every instrument known to man. Sam and Noah were both in jeans and pullovers, white for Sam and a heather gray for Noah. Both young men had their forearms bared and their stances just a little aggressive. Mede stood between them, in a simple bright blue jumpsuit that was high necked and wide legged. She seemed taller and I wondered with a smile how high her heels actually were. The music swelled as Mercedes strong voice rang out in about the middle of her vocal range. "Give em hell, turn their heads. Gonna live life 'til we're dead. Give me scars, give me pain. Then they'll say to me, say to me, say to me. There goes the fighter, there goes the fighter. Here comes the fighter…That's what they'll say to me, say to me, say to me, this one's a fighter."

I looked around and saw the audience around us fall in love with Mercedes voice. Then Noah and Sam came in sort of rap/singing. "Just waking up in the morning and to be well, quite honest with ya, I ain't really sleep well. Ya ever feel like your train of thought's been derailed? That's when you press on - Lee nails. Half the population's just waitin to see me fail. Yeah right, you're better off trying to freeze hell. Some of us do it for the females…and others do it for the retail. But I do it for the kids, life threw the towel in on. Every time you fall it's only making your chin strong. And I'll be in your corner like Mick, baby, 'til the end, or when you hear a song from that big lady."

The three of them came together to sing the bridge as the orchestra swelled behind them. "Until the referee rings the bell, until both your eyes start to swell, until the crowd goes home…What we gonna do ya'll?"

Mercedes voice flowed over us as she played with the chorus again. The song was a little uptempo and the kids were dancing their asses off, moving all around the entire stage as they sang. Noah came in strong with the next verse. "And if I can last thirty rounds…There's no reason you should ever have your head down. Six foot one, two hundred and twenty pounds hailing from rock bottom, loserville, nothing town." There was no doubt in anyone's mind that that line was hella personal to Noah. It came through in every note and made the lyrics come alive.

Sam's voice took over next, his accent thick even in song. "Text book version of a kid going nowhere fast and now I'm yelling, "Kiss my ass". It's gonna take a couple right hooks, a few left jabs for you to recognize you really ain't got it bad." People were up and dancing and singing along during the bridge and the chorus. He came back in with a sung chant that the audience really got into. "Everybody put yo hands up. What we gonna do (hey!) y'all?" was chanted a whole bunch of times and every time the audience got louder.

MeDe's voice turned hard almost harsh it was so strong and so aggressive. "If you fall pick yourself up off the floor (get up) and when your bones can't take no more (c'mon). Just remember what you're here for, cuz I know Imma damn sure…" and in an instant her voice was back to being melodic and beautiful for the final chorus. They finished the song with a bridge all together. The crowd was insane with love for them. Mercedes seemed to disappear and Sam and Noah were handed their guitars. They did 'Rescue Me' together and then said goodnight only for Mercedes to come back out alone. As they passed each other on the stage, Noah and Sam both kissed her gently which seemed to further excite the audience.

Her solo was straight up R&B with a little bit of a slight gospel feel. She moved the audience to pure tears. 'The Fighter', the KAMA song, was strong and almost aggressive; 'The Climb', Mercedes' solo was deeper, richer…it was truly inspirational. The audience loved it completely. Every note was perfect. The runs before the final bridge were awe inspiring. The crowd, most of whom wouldn't have been able to match a face with her name before that night, was eating out of the palm of her hand. I didn't even notice Martina McBride make her way out of the seats. I didn't notice the Warner people behind us chattering away; dollar signs filling their eyes. I didn't even notice Santana a few seats away hyping Mercedes and KAMA up to the radio winners for whom Jill Scott and Rascal Flatts had been the real draws. I was that deeply ensnared by her voice. When the last note died away, I was the first one on my feet. I clapped and cheered until my hands hurt.

Martina McBride and Jill Scott took the stage and did a wonderful rendition of 'Teenage Daughters' which was in the movie in its original country version and then on the soundtrack as a duet. Then the two of them were joined by Mercedes and their voices blended amazingly on 'In My Daughter's Eyes'. Rascal Flatts was up next. They did a very moving version of 'My Wish', which the crowd loved. Then Noah and Sam, both of them with their guitars, joined them onstage and together they sang 'Love You Out Loud', which I noticed wasn't on the soundtrack, but I for one was certainly not complaining.

Over the course of the evening we heard all thirteen songs from the soundtrack and a few other smaller covers that were used in the movie but didn't make the soundtrack. The last song was a simple duet between Mercedes and Jill Scott. Both of the voluptuous divas were wearing floor length formal gowns, Mercedes' a navy blue, sequin festooned, one shoulder number and Jill's red, shawl collar, sex bomb. 'Who You Are' was a very touching song that showcased the vocals of both of the songstresses. They were both such strong vocalist that the orchestra was playing full bore and their voices were still above the music not hidden therein. When the last person finished clapping, the two Divas were joined on stage, for an encore, by Martina McBride who had changed into a lovely Grecian looking ivory one shoulder gown. The trio went into a rousing, roof raising, raucous delivery of 'Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves'. Of course, I knew every word.

When the concert was over we all headed back into the lobby, where the bar and buffet were once again open. Roman went and got us drinks, returning with a pomegranate champagne cocktail and a draft beer. "Ruth, you have every reason to be proud. Those three are going far. I heard someone say that the concession stand went from twelve boxes before the concert to being down to just two and the concert has only been over for ten minutes. People were coming out and buying them then going back in…and supposedly that started after the very first song."

Roger and Santiago returned from getting their wives drinks. The younger crew had disappeared on us, though I was fairly sure that Santana was over by the shrimp cocktail making the caterer worry that they were going to run out. "The chatter on the floor is hugely in favor of KAMA. They are asking when they are going to put out an album. The only person I heard that didn't seem to be in love with them was a dark haired girl that looked vaguely familiar and her date." Santiago gestured towards the girl he was speaking about.

"Don't know who she is, but she must have money. Those ombred ends, those shoes are Pella Moda, though I am surprised to see somebody that young wearing kitten heels…all that screams money, plus, that dude is a gigolo. The Matre D' at 'The Place' keeps a registry of all the jigs and escorts we spot. They have a tendency to dine and dash if their date doesn't go well." Roman explained with a small grin. "Oh and that tacky dress is hella ugly and kind of juvenile but high end."

Wait…tacky, juvenile ugly dress…dark hair… old lady shoes. Why does that all sound so familiar. "Oh shit, where is Santana?" I started searching the crowd. I grabbed out my phone and texted the fiery Latin diva. "Please Satan…if you don't cause a scene I will loan you my brand new leather peplum minidress. Haven't even worn it yet."

She turned and came over to us. "Damn…you spotted her too." Santana smirked. "Gotta give her credit, that bitch has the world's best luck. You guys spotted her first."

Roman smirked. "Sounds like there is no love lost."

Marisol cursed stridently in Spanish before answering the inherent question in that statement. "That is Rachel Berry, she used to be a friend…or at least call herself one…of Mercedes. However, time has shown her to be a viper…a pit viper. She has tried several times to hamper Mercedes' success."

"Yes well, what the Lord has for you, no one can take away." MeDe said as she and the boys joined us. "Besides, I've heard five different women laughing at her behind her back. I'm not sure what the deal is with her date, but they are finding him very amusing."

Noah and Sam smiled cheekily, no longer able to wait to find out, "So, what are you hearing? What's the buzz?"

"Well first…let me introduce you to my friend Roman." I chided gently.

"You are one built dude. You look like you could be in the WWE." Sam said looking up at Roman's face. "Damn…are you a bodyguard or something. I mean, you are big."

Roman gave him a smirk. "Kid, you're not that small yourself." He pointed out. "But I'm actually a patisserie. Which is a really fancy way to say that I'm a very exclusive dessert chef. I believe that you three enjoyed my bread pudding and crème brulee the other night."

"Oh wow, you were Bubbie's connection at 'The Place'." Noah said with a smirk of his own. "So you're boning my grandmother…you are certainly her type. You'd better do her right or else. I'm not ashamed to say I'm not gonna try and fight you… but I will shoot your big ass. Hit you once in each kneecap and then a nice respectful double tap to the head."

"Thank you for that. It's just plain disrespectful not to go for the double head shot. It underestimates my strength and ability to fight through pain." Roman shot back much to my confusion. "Sorry Ruth, don't worry…it's a CoD/ Walking Dead thing."

I rolled my eyes. "My date and my grandson play the same video games…if I were a different person that might actually bother me."

Mercedes looked around quickly and I noticed that Deborah was gesturing at her watch. "Sorry, we've gotta hurry...Deborah wants us to walk the room and smooze."

"Well, just give us enough time for a toast." Santiago said with a grin. He made an effortless gesture and one of the hosts with a tray of champagne appeared almost as if by magic. The kids all grabbed a glass, once everyone had a drink in their hand he spoke, "To Commune…KAMA. In the last year you have done so much to change the world around you for the benefit not only of yourselves but for the benefit of all those you hold dear. I've gotta say it has been magnificent to see, to watch and to be a peripheral part of…Thank you for bring my Angelita and her loves on this wild, wonderful journey with you. You three are going to be so very successful. Here is our hope that the very best day of your past be worse than the very worst day of your future…Salud."

Marisol, Santana and Artie all seconded that Spanish 'Cheers'. "Sei gesund." Saul, myself and the Abrams all said with a big grin. Blaine smirked as both he and Roman said "Mabuhay". Mills and Brittany both simply said cheers. Mercedes, Sam and even my incorrigible Noah all blushed hotly. None of them were fully comfortable with direct, one on one praise like that. We all took a sip of the marvelous champagne, or of our cocktails.

The rest of the evening passed in an absolute blur of faces and names, questions and comments. Noah, MeDe and Sam made twenty eight hundred fans that night and I was happier for them then I could put into words. Roman saw Deborah and I back to my apartment at one thirty and he was kind enough keep us entertained until we had to say good bye seven hours later. Roman kept saying that he was a very lucky man. I personally thought that I was the lucky one. Deborah was a fun and adventurous lover. Roman was hung like horse. When I had to leave to meet the rest of the family traveling to Lima for Thanksgiving, both Deb and I were walking rather gingerly and Roman was strutting like a peacock. Then again, the smile on my face was telling a story all its own.

**Where Its At (Beck)  
><strong>_Saul PoV_

Mills and I had a blast at the soundtrack release party. The crowd was really excited as they talked about the 'new group' and it was easy to tell that they wanted more. We actually headed out long before Mom and the young set. I bit back a groan when I heard Mom ask her date if he minded waiting for her friend Deborah. I just knew that my mother was about to make that man's dream come true…squickish as the thought might be for me. Granted, I didn't allow that to stop me from spending several hours showing Mills just how hot she had looked wearing that sexy little jumpsuit and how much I appreciated her leaving off the bra, even though she didn't have to. Thankfully Noah and his loves hadn't sang any of their love songs. Those three had managed to do something I'd never heard before. They had created Rock/R&B fusion babymaking music. If they had played one of those songs, that concert would have turned into a straight up orgy.

We were back up and out the door with our luggage for the weekend by eight thirty. Since my place was sort of on the way from both Harlem and Chelsea to JFK, we met up in my lobby and I can honestly say we were all looking like we probably should have had one less round of sex and one more hour of sleep. But we all looked happy as hell. There comes a point where even when you are happy and satisfied with why you've not gotten enough sleep, you can still be entirely too tired to eat. Even Kurt and Blaine were at that extreme level of tired, so we skipped breakfast all together. We got to the airport on time and boarded after leaning against each other all fighting valiantly to stay awake. Our arrival at Dayton was only ten minute late. Since no one was in any condition to make the hour drive up to Lima, I hired a shuttle to make the trip. It would be easy to rent a car in Lima once we were rested.

It was as we were on the way from Dayton to Lima that we were all startled by something coming from the speakers. "Holy shit." Is that? "Sir can you turn up the radio." I called out…sure enough.

"I stare at my reflection in the mirror: "Why am I doing this to myself?" Losing my mind on a tiny error; I nearly left the real me on the shelf. No, no, no, no, no..." Mercedes dulcet tones came flowing out of the radio joined by Jill's on the chorus.

"Oh my God." Mercedes gasped. "I'm on the radio…I'm on the radio." We all turned around to look at the three of them in the backseat, our faces beaming with happiness.

"Holy Shit." Noah basically screamed. "That is fucking awesome, Babygirl." Then he and Sam laid kisses on her that probably should have made me uncomfortable to see. But I was so happy for them that I couldn't feel anything but joy.

When the song ended the radio host's voice filled the car. "That was 'Who You Are' by Jill Scott and new comer and Ohio native Mercedes Jones. It's from the SongBird soundtrack available today in stores and on iTunes. SongBird hits theaters on December twentieth. Dayton, we should pack the theaters. How often do we get to see a hometown girl on the big screen?"

"She's actually from Lima…but we'll take it." Kurt laughed merrily. "We need to blow social media up. Get the date trending everywhere we can. If we can get theaters packed for opening weekend, you know that KAMA's first album will blow up."

When we got to Bent and Dani's the driver congratulated Mercedes warmly and I tipped him heavily. As soon as we walked in the house Noah, Cede and Sam were telling everyone including Ms. Mae and the babies about hearing her on the radio. Mills and I bothered Gab's belly and played with Amaea and Amara before we borrowed Benton's Jag and went to check in to our hotel. We needed a nap in the worst way. "I cannot believe that we heard somebody we know on the radio. It just made it all really real, ya know?" Mills asked as she changed into a sexy little negligee.

"I do know what you mean. What I don't know is why you bother with nightgowns? You know I'm gonna slip it off of you as soon as I get in touching distance."

Mills smirked at me. "Maybe that's exactly why I bother." She taunted as she came closer. So our nap had to wait an hour. It was totally worth it. We slept for two hours and then showered and headed back to the house. On the way Benton texted me and asked if we could stop and get the traditional Chinese takeaway. By the time we got there, Devon and Tonya and Kevon and Patrice had arrived.

"Okay, so this summer is going to be hella packed." Becah said once we were all seated around the table with our food. "Kevon and Patrice are getting married in June. George and I are getting married in July…"

"Saul and I are having a ceremony on August ninth." Mills injected while Becks was looking at her calendar.

Every woman related to me, by blood and by choice, all screamed and soon food was forgotten as they dragged Mills kicking and screaming into a conversation of dresses and flowers and colors and everything. The guys looked up from their plates and congratulated me then promptly went right back to consuming vast amounts of Chinese food. The night was filled with light and laughter, conversation and well wishes. Mom and the Jones sons and their wives headed to the hotel to check in and Mills and I returned to our room. Morning came early and we headed back and helped with dinner. Then we ate dinner, and we fell into food comas. Once enough people came to, we played a boatload of games. I spanked the adult men at Monopoly while Dani took the title for the adult females. She and I along with Kevon and Becah, who came in second in each of their respective games, played to find out who took the championship. Ultimately it came down to myself and my darling blood sister but in the end the title was mine.

Over the nine months Mills and I had been married; I'd found, a little to my surprise, that there was nothing I loved more than laying in the still and quiet of afterglow just chatting with my wife. We had spent some time talking about important things, like the flooring we'd picked for the first floor or which cabinets we wanted for our new kitchen, and then we got really silly. "So, tell me one thing you know for sure that I don't know about you and you kind of worry about my reaction when I find out?" I asked my sated and relaxed wife, smiling to myself as I thought about the progress we'd looked at Monday evening on the house we were building. The basement had been changed twice but it was now completed as was the shell of the three above ground floors and the roof.

I felt her smile against my chest. "If I'm worried about your reaction when you find out…why would I voluntarily tell you what it is?"

I shrugged. "Because you're my wife for the next fifty or sixty years…life last and nothing happen…so I'm gonna find out eventually. Might as well get it on out of the way now."

"This is one of those weird things you, Sander and Benton do during your Saturday morning skype sessions…isn't it?" she arched her head to look at me. I admitted it was and that this one had come from the slightly disturbed mind of my brother from a southern mother. "What is Sander's one thing?"

I looked around checking without thought to make sure that we were alone before I told her, despite knowing for a fact that we were. "Sander is an eyelash plucker. When he gets really bored he will pull out his loose eyelashes."

Mills laughed. "That's not that bad. I thought you were gonna say that he sometimes wore Gabby's panties or something wild and crazy. So what is Benton's?"

Benton's wasn't one I was comfortably thinking about. I mean Danica was my sister in my heart just as much as Rebecah or Gabrielle…thinking of her in a sexual way, as I pretty much had to whenever I had to consider Benton's bent little confession. So instead I threw her mine. "I have to lotion my elbows three times a day. I've done it since college." I finally said with a wry grin.

"I knew you had lotion in your apartment the first time I came over. I just assumed it was left behind by one of your black family members…I didn't realize that it was yours. My white man uses Jergens. That's hilarious." Mills teased. "I guess I can tell you. If I don't get a pedicure every two weeks, my feet get so bad they can shred sheets."

"Is it weird that our hidden secrets are so similar…and I kind like it." I kissed her and soon we had a nice, unexpected romp, before we finally fell asleep.

We didn't make it back to the hotel until fairly late and didn't make it to sleep until even later, but Mills had me back up early. She was determined to catch the sales, since she had so many people to buy for. We hit the malls found a few things for a couple of people. In Macy's we ran into Danica and Mercedes. If I had known how much trouble the encounter would end up developing into, I'd have steered clear of my sister and niece. "So where are the two of you going to register for your wedding gifts?" Danica asked innocently.

"We can't do that... by the time we have our ceremony, we'll have been married for over a year." I said, clearly thankful for the fact that we'd not need to jump through that hoop.

Mercedes and Dani exchanged a long look before bursting into loud guffaws of laughter. "Saul, you do know that no one holds to that rule anymore, don't you? People register for gifts for vow renewals all the time. Plus on top of the ceremony, you two will be furnishing a house. Might as well get stuff for that while you're at it."

Then it was my wife and my turn to exchange long looks. "Wait, you know about that? How do you know about that? We were waiting until like Passover to tell the family about that." Mills asked quickly.

Mercedes laughed. "You told Francesca…she let it slip to Neil…who let it slip to Kurt…who let it slip to Puck who told me. I think I told Mom…no, I told Becah…she told mom…"

"She also told Bubbie, who told Moma Mae and she told Benton before I even got the chance." Dani pouted.

I rolled my eyes. "You know this isn't normal. There are families out there were grandmothers from separate sides only see each other at huge family events like christenings and such…right? They don't have daily chats for no reason other than to see how the other is doing. Friends and roommates don't talk to their friend's various family members and act as their style gurus."

Mills gave me a cross eyed look. "It might not be normal, but I kind of like the fact that Ms. Mae calls when I've been on her mind. I've missed having a family. So yeah, maybe ours isn't like most people's…but that's because it's better."

Of course, I then did what men have been doing since time began, not satisfied with having my foot in my mouth, I decided to see what my knee cap tasted like. "Yeah it may well be better, but it is a hell of a lot nosier too." I said in what I swore was a joking manner. Apparently when I'd only had about three hours of sleep, joking and 'mean and surly' were indistinguishable from one another. I got three very fierce, very scary, very 'I'm not sure white women can even hope to elicit that level of fear with just a look' frightening looks. Then I found me alone as the three of them turned and walked away as one, discussing the pros and cons of Mills and me creating a wedding registry.

I stood there for a long moment trying to figure out what the hell had happened. Thankfully all Limans are nosy as hell and one of the two older men who had been listening as they sat on a nearby bench waiting on their wives must have read the confusion on my face. "Son, you done stuck your foot in your mouth clear up to the hip."

I nodded. "I thought it was to the knee, myself. Only problem is that I'm not sure what I did wrong?"

The old man, who actually reminded me a lot of the guy who had played Matlock, laughed. "Son, you basically called your whole family a bunch of nosy nellies. Now the thing about nosy people is that when you call us nosy, we get real offended. Now it seems like to me, just from what I was able to gather, that your little lady has been really missing having family to call her own. Then you went and insulted them…the fact that they are actually your family too ain't gonna excuse that in her eyes."

"Yeah, plus you went and said that she shouldn't do her wedding up just as fancy as every other woman she's probably ever known." Matlock's companion, who looked creepily like Wilfred Brimley, chided me. "That was bound to get you in trouble man. Especially since I'm guessing that you took her to the courthouse or something rushed the first go round."

"I may have kind of tricked her into a Vegas wedding." I heard myself admit.

The old men exchanged looks and started to laugh. "Man, you done gone and got that foot so far down your gullet you're gonna be shitting shoe leather 'til you're our age. Every little girl dreams of her wedding day. They even dream about all the other crap associated with weddings."

"Even those Lesbians and gays dream of their weddings." Wilfred laughed. "That's why they wanna get married so bad. They want weddings just like straight girls."

"I say let them do it. Enough of them get married they'll figure out what straight folk figured out while back…all marriage does is give ya a piece of paper that says you love each other without hand therefore never have to have sex with each other ever again." Matlock chortled.

"Sorry, Jake, but that must be what your marriage did. Mine got my wife to finally have sex with me and once that cork was popped...Hell, I still get it at least twice a week. It was more than that before Edna broke her hip last year." Wilfred laughed.

"Oh shut up, Ben. Not every man lucks up on a virgin who turns into one of those deviants when she goes through the change."

"Wasn't the change…" Wilfred damn near giggled. "Fifty-five years and until the hip, every night like clockwork 'ceptin' when she had the boys."

"Fine Ben, but we ain't here for you to crow about your sex life, we're here to help this young'un get his woman back ta speakin' ta him." Matlock-Jake grumbled. "Alright, your wife just wants to know that all things considered you're just as hepped up for getting hitched all over again as she is. Probably since you are a man…you're just not. Learn to fake it until ya can make it. If nothing else, think about how happy its gonna make her. She is the most important thing. Now, look a here, what you're gonna do is get out your 'dumb' phone and send your woman a message to meet you on the first floor of Macys. By the time she gets there you'd better have fixed up the registry wha-cha-ma-callit, and be holding two of them nifty little gun thingies."

I shook my head, "We aren't from here."

"Boy, I can tell that every time you open your mouth. You're from up in the Big Apple, ain't ya…that's why I said Macy's…I know they got one of them there. Just like I know my grandson said all that stuff was linked up on the internet. So it don't matter where you start it. Don't matter where you buy the stuff…all that matters is where you want to have it delivered to and what the wedding date is. You know those two things, right?" I could only nod. "Then take your lanky patootie and do as I said. You don't even have to do it all here. You can start it and finish it up when you get back to New York. Now get on with you. Muriel and his Edna are coming this way and they will have you here until the end of time if they corner you." I looked up and saw two older women headed towards us. Neither of them looked like Aunt B…though one of them did look a lot like Maureen Stapleton. Something in me told me to trust the men…after all they looked like they had a century of marital knowledge between the two of them, I stood and shook their hands in thanks before making my escape.

I followed Matlock's advice and some that I'd gotten from listening to men as they grumbled and groused as they had been forced into 'registering' with their brides. I paid attention and I had actual opinions. By the time we left Macy's we'd barely chosen anything, but I was back in Mills good graces. Gaining my sister's and niece's forgiveness was easier…gift cards, chocolates and a cashmere sweater for Danica and a Dooney and Burke bag for Mercedes and all was forgiven. Granted they had already told Mrs. Mae and Mom on me, but those two were perfectly willing to admit to their nosiness. By the time we returned to the City that Sunday, my life was back in order and my foot had been removed from my oral cavity…if I ever ran into those two old men again, I was definitely going to have to show my gratitude.

**Glory (Jay-Z)  
><strong>_Azimio PoV_

I was damn glad to be home for Thanksgiving. Having to deal with school and football and Robyn every day was fucking exhausting. I halfway wanted to drop football, but I knew that if I did that, I'd need to get a job to make up the difference that would be left over in my tuition. A job would probably take even more time away from the time I got to spend with my Little Bird. That shit wasn't about to happen, not if I could help it. I may not have been planning to have a baby when I was eighteen years old. I may not have even actually liked her momma, beyond the obvious 'she was hot' kind of way, but that little girl was my whole world. I had planned on going to college because that was what you did….but I knew that I would finish and I would work hard so that I could provide her with the same kind of future that I'd taken for granted. Hell I had been hella lucky so far; all my away games had synced up with Alizay's weekends with Robyn. But even more than that my cousin Rae had turned out to be a true Godsend.

Nanette Regina Adams was my dad's older brother's oldest daughter. She had degrees in in both Journalism and Computer Programing. She had a job with Apple writing the instructions that come with their tech shit. She made damn good money too. I was more than a little surprised that she wanted or needed help with the apartment stuff, but since she only worked like thirty five hours a week maybe she really did. Rae was cool people, but she was pretty reclusive and kind of boring. She read, like a lot. She had brought her furniture, so my parents and I only had to buy the stuff for Robyn's and my rooms. The living room was filled with bookshelves, Rae owned, like a billion books and not one TV.

The apartment was one of those townhouse-like ones with two bedrooms, a bathroom, living room, kitchen, dining room and sunroom on the first floor and a master suite on the top floor. Rae had the master suite, since she was paying the bulk of the rent and the bills I wasn't about to argue. She had moved in almost a month before I did, but she still had my ass humping boxes of books up to the other boatload of bookshelves she had taking up most of the big ass bedroom she occupied. But considering that not only did she do her job and took care of Robyn when I can't, she also took Robyn back to Lima for Alizay's supervised visits when we need her to. Plus, as long as I chip in for groceries and clean my bathroom, she does all the shopping, most of the cleaning and her and Little Bird's laundry. If we weren't family, I'd have had to marry her.

Mom and Dad and I had gotten Robyn a second set of furniture to stay in the apartment. Since she was going to be going home every other weekend, we'd left her nursery at home all set up. Her furniture at home had come from Babies R'Us, the set in the apartment had been brought from the Wilberforce Walmart. My furniture at home had come from Ethan Allen…but for my college room, we'd gone to Goodwill and bought me a desk and chair, dresser, full bed; headboard, footboard and rails; a couple of lamps and a small book shelf; then we'd hit Mattress Firm and got a mattress set for my bed. All total even with the mattresses, we spent twice as much on the baby's furniture than we did on mine, and we hadn't spent nearly as much on her room in the apartment as we had on her real room. Rae had a nice comfy glider chair and a small white bookshelf already in Robyn's room when we arrived and the shelves were filled with books and smart baby toys, gifts from family members who hadn't been able to send stuff when she was born. Kind of glad that they had to wait, that saved us a grip.

The living room had a big ass dark tan sectional with burgundy, gold and cream colored throw pillows and a couple of long, soft throw blankets over the back. The sunroom acted as Rae's office. She had a big L shaped desk with a three screen setup for her big ass iMac. The other smaller side she had given to me for my 'gaming area' since the room had the best Wi-Fi and all the connections it made the most sense for me to have my TV, Xbox and my awesome X-Rocker gamer chair there. Not that I got to play it all that often. My mornings started early because Little Bird was not a 'sleep in' kind of girl. I fed her and got her dressed for the first time for the day and then she chilled in her swing on the dining room table while I fixed myself a nice healthy breakfast. Then it was into the jogging stroller Coach Bieste had gotten for Robyn for a good little run. After the run, we showered and it was into a new onesie and diaper for her and dressed for class for me. By then Rae was usually up and at her computer, so Robyn went into her swing over with Rae, who always piped in Mozart and Chopin in the morning, Aretha and Motown's greatest in the afternoon. Rae was determined that Little Bird was going to grow up already totally keyed in to musical appreciation. Granted with Puck, Sam and Mercedes as her godparents she couldn't really avoid it.

I was in classes from ten until three, then I went home and had some bonding time with Rae while I did my assignments or studied, then I literally ran back to campus for football practice. Practice was over at seven, then I ran back to the apartment. I hated fucking running, but Coach was really into conditioning so I had to step up my game. I gave Little Bird her bath with the Johnson & Johnson's lavender scented baby wash. A nice warm bottle and she was out like a light. Once she was out, then I could finish up my school shit. I may or may not have managed to get in some time vegging out on my bed with the old fashion nineteen inch TV on my dresser. Usually that vegging out turned into knocking out and then it started all over again the next day.

It was fine, and I was doing what I needed to do, but I was glad as hell to get home and see my peoples. Finn and Lauren were the first ones I saw. The whole crew knew that they weren't together anymore, and a fool could see that Finn wanted her back, but Lauren, she played her shit tight to her vest. There was no reading her at all. They brought Finn's roommate back with them since old dude had nowhere to go…he was far away and had a fucked up family situation. Vince seemed like cool people. He could play CoD like a boss. Dave got home the next day and fell ass over teakettle with one look. That was some funny shit, watching Dave moon over Vince. Thankfully living with Kurt had taught Finn some shit cause Finn pulled Dave to the side and talked to him so the crush did a quick death when Karofsky realized that it wasn't gonna be returned. Wednesday evening, I had Little Bird with me when I went over there, she slept through all the trash talk and loud video game sounds. She slept right up to the point when Commune showed up with Beth. Then Beth wanted to play with her. So I helped set up a blanket that Robyn could lay down on allowing them to play. Mercedes walked over to Finn, gave him a hug and then slapped the ever living shit out of him.

"Ooohhh." We all groaned Finn's cheek was red as hell and he had a couple of tears making tracks down his cheeks. Yet it was clear looking at Puck that Finn had lucked out...that our formerly mohawked friend had pulled the long straw or lost at 'rock paper scissors' or whatever method they used to see who would be telling Finnessa all about himself.

"Just be happy that Santana is staying in Harlem." She said kindly.

Sam nodded solemnly and interjected. "Be grateful Tina and Mike couldn't come home either. Mike said that Tina was hugely pissed. Like 'you really don't want to know what she is planning' pissed. A couple of the things she wants to do to you on Lauren's behalf would make you lose sleep…the rest would make you want to sleep in a cup until your junk is too old to be of any use to anybody."

Mercedes rolled her eyes at her blond boyfriend before turning back to Finn. "Look, if Lauren can be your friend even after the totally bone headed move you made, then Santana, Tina and I will continue being your friend too. But you need to get your head out your ass. You've gotten fucked over by cheerleaders and aggressive Type A personalities before, now you've gotten fucked over all over again…hurting Lauren in the process. I can forgive you for being stupid, but I'm having some trouble forgiving you for hurting my girl."

Finn sighed. "I know. I don't deserve forgiveness…well, I mean, what I did was really bad and hard to forgive. Dr. Baker said that I wasn't allowed to say that 'I don't deserve' good things because I shouldn't feel like I'm not worthy of good stuff happening to me."

"Did this Dr. Baker also tell your ass that you don't need to drink? That shit kills brain cells and you don't have that many to spare." Puck shot at his boy. Mercedes cut him a side eyed look. "What? You said that I couldn't hit, cut, smack, punch or wedgie him…you didn't say I couldn't verbally express my anger and pissed offed ness at his fucked up choices."

Mercedes reached up and Gibbs smacked Puckerman. "Drop the f-bomb in front of those babies again and see what I do to you." she said fiercely.

Puck must have been a C Student by choice because he was smart enough to look scared as hell and moved behind Evans. Jones turned back to Finn who was looking over at Hummel like 'Kurt help me'. His brother just looked back like 'Sorry Bro, you brought this onto yourself'. Finally Hudson found some testicular fortitude. "I am sorry. I really am. I love Lauren. I didn't want to hurt her, like ever but I did. And I don't even know how I got so drunk. I was just having a few beers with some of the seniors. They were giving me tips on conditioning. I need to get up five more reps of the NFL conditioning test for the coaches to move me up to the second string. I know that I need to do it gradually so I don't hurt myself and get sustained change…Lauren taught me that over the summer. Then somebody brought out some little plastic things of Jello and it was blue raspberry…which is my favorite. I had a couple of those and then boom waking up with random cheer chick."

I laughed. "Dude, Hudson, those were Jello shots, they could have anything in them…vodka, rum, everclear, any clear liquor works."

Then Vince chimed in. "Man, you didn't have 'a couple' of them, either; you had like ten or twelve of them."

"Damn, no wonder you passed out and can't remember shit. Granted, you probably didn't actually cheat. No way your dick worked with that much shit in your system." Puck laughed. "You know that you're a cheap drunk. You must have been totally toasted."

Fabray popped in then and she announced the presence of her and her boyfriend Gibbs by asking "Who is a cheap drunk…Other than me I mean? Oh Finn. Remember that time at Santana's when she slipped him a half shot of rum in his coke and he climbed onto her coffee table and tried to show everyone that he could do a real hula dance?"

"Oh yeah," I remembered. "He must of forgot that he can't do a regular dance, let alone a hula. Wasn't that the same party Lopez and Pierce…." I stopped laughing with a quickness when I realized how much trouble that story could have gotten Puckerman into. I changed the subject with a quickness. "Hey…we have four non-related black people in the same room and it isn't school or a church. This might be a Lima, Ohio record."

"I don't know about non-related." Sam said quietly. "Man Vince, Finn and Lauren warned us, but I still keep wanting to call you Kevon."

"Wait, I thought it was some cat named Devon, I looked like?" Vince said confused.

Mercedes shook her head. "No. You look like my brother Kevon. Finn gets them backwards all the time."

"Well in Finn's defense, they aren't even a full year apart in age and they were together every time he's seen them." Fabray pointed out.

"Can I just say, it's weird to see Fabray without Lopez and Pierce…right?" I asked the room at large.

Lauren laughed. "It is." She agreed. Then she turned to Vince. "For the two or three years of high school, the 'Unholy Trinity' was inseparable. I don't think Que and Santana even liked each other at first. But they were everywhere together."

"No we liked each other from jump…at least until I got Captain of the Cheerios when she wanted it. Then it became a Frienemies kind of thing. But after junior prom we got tight again." Fabray explained to the rest of the room.

"Everyone got tight again after Junior Prom." Zizes laughed. "You all even sucked me in."

"I just want to point out that the whitest girl in all of Lima just used the terms 'from jump' and 'tight' correctly in a sentence. James has been good for you Quinn." Sam teased.

"You are so lucky you're holding my daughter, Sam." Quinn threatened before crossing to take Beth from his arms and hit him in revenge.

We all laughed and then spent the next hour or so catching up and playing pass the babies. We all congratulated Jones, Evans and Puck on the soundtrack and we had all paid the price for it rather than downloading a share file like how both Lauren and I admitted we usually got our music. As Beth and Little Bird determined that it was time for us to go home, Vince looked around at us, "Do you all think you're all going to be friends forever…like for real?"

"Oh, those three ain't got no choice. They'll be seeing me for the rest of our lives, cause they are my Little Bird's godparents."

Quinn smiled. "Puck is Beth's father, we'll always be connected. Cedes is my sister in all but blood." She told him.

Finn and Kurt mentioned that they were brothers, and Lauren noted that she was Jones' manager from way back. "And you have met C Cubed or Artie and Brittany yet, but those three will never, ever, ever let us all lose contact. Tina and Britts are invested in our little family. And Artie and Mike are invested in Tina's and Britts' happiness. But you might as well suck it up. I decided on like day three that your ass was stuck with us too and where I go, I'm dragging your ass." She told him with a grin. "I've always wanted a brother."

Vince smirked. "I've always wanted a sister I can actually stand."

Thanksgiving at the Adams house that year was totally different. Rae, her brothers, sister and parents came and celebrated the holiday with us. Mom had help cooking so she was a lot less stressed out and to be honest, a lot more likable by the end of the day. I had to head back to school on Friday because we had a game that Saturday. Rae and Robyn stayed with the family and come home on Sunday. The break was cool. I felt regenerated; I'd reconnected with my peeps. Emailing, texting and skyping was cool, but seeing them in person really just made things feel right again. I was able to talk some shit out with Zizes and knew more about a decision I'd been trying to make since the start of school. I had such a great holiday that I even got some time on the field that game. When classes started that Monday, I made arrangements to meet with my advisor. I declared my majors, software engineering and computer science. I knew how I was going to give my Little Bird the future she deserved, and it started that Thanksgiving holiday.

* * *

><p>Read &amp; Review Please (or the next Criminal Minds Marathon might just get my undivided attention). *Insert Evil Laughter Here*<p>

Let me know what you like, what you hate and what you want to see next or know about the other New Directions.

Chapter Six will continue the looks into the lives of the other Gleeks.  
>Sorry, but this one was just too long to include anything more.<p>

TTFN,

Anni


	6. Bitch, Try, California Love & WITAC

**Les Âmes Soeurs**  
>AnniKay<p>

Sam/Mercedes/Puck  
>Disclaimer: I own Nothing…Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennen along with Fox and others own this fandom and all the characters there in…Anything you recognize obviously belongs to them<br>******THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****  
><strong>The more I hear about this last season of** Glee **the more I realize that it is a very good thing I'm not still watching. RIB and his writers can each collectively and individually kiss my big black ass.** SamCedes is EndGame. **If they can't see that then they need new, not stupid, eyes.**  
>Thank all of you for being avid readers &amp; reviewers of my stories <strong>

**Special thanks to KayBee80 & Illiandyanndra who have been Beta rock stars for all of my thirteen stories  
>MsLadyThankYouVeryMuch…Thank you very much, Your review inspired the first section!<strong>

**Summary: **The gang has moved to New York. College and career are on the horizon…Are the Original New Directions ready for what all the future holds?  
><strong>AN:<strong> _Many of KAMA's songs are real songs recorded by artists in the past. Please check out the Yahoo Group for a full listing of the correct singers, songwriters and other necessary information._

* * *

><p><strong>Bitch (Meredith Brooks)<strong>  
><em>Sue Sylvester PoV<em>

As I walked down the halls of my school; Figgins could claim dominion over it all he wanted, the whole McKinley High population knew who was in charge and it sure as hell wasn't him; I found myself smirking. Thanksgiving break started at noon, so soon I would have five and a half days when I didn't have to see any of these disappointed wastes of human flesh. Even more satisfying was the fact that one of my alumnae Cheerio's vocal stylings had been beautifying Lima's radio air waves all morning. My happiness scared more than one of the students. However it was mirrored in the faces of my new Unholy Trinity and their red haired cohort. Speaking of gingers... I altered my course to take me past the office of our school's guidance counselor, though how a crazy person can give others counsel, I had yet to understand. "Hey, Little Anal Annie," I barked making her jump and sent little bottles of hand sanitizer all over her desk. "I need the phone number for Mop and Glow in New York."

Pillsbury had a tiny hand pressed against her even tinier breasts as if she could calm her racing heart from the outside. "Really Sue, while I am sure that you were referring to my OCD as my being anal retentive, the fact that even I know that nomenclature belongs to an adult film means that calling me that was very inappropriate." She chided. "I suppose that your expression of obvious joy is because you have heard of Mercedes', Sam, and Noah's successful Halloween concert and heard Mercedes' duet with Jill Scott and would like to call William to gloat in what you believe is his mistaken choice of the New Direction's Rising Star?" she asked with a look in her eye that was almost, dare I say it, dirty. But I noted that she was writing the number for me on a post it note even as she spoke.

"Wow, Ginger Care Bear, I didn't think you had it in you to sic me on Schuester." I taunted.

She simply shrugged. "I told William far too many times that he was only doing himself and Rachel a disservice by favoring her so much over the other, equally talented, kids. So perhaps I am enjoying this just a bit."

I closed her door. "I know how you can enjoy it even more." I grabbed her phone and quickly dialed the number on the note. Gaining my respect far more than I thought possible, Pillsbury quietly pressed the speaker phone button and sat back to enjoy the show.

"Good morning?" Schuester said a little cautiously. I knew that dialing from the school line was a good idea. He would answer because it could have been the She-Bieste or Dough Girl, but instead…

He got me. "Morning Brillo Head…how does it feel to be so epically wrong about your Broadway darling Delusional Berry versus my Cheerio and Warner Recording Artist Mercedes 'Already being called the new Aretha' Jones?"

Schuester gave a put upon sigh. "I'm not sure what you are talking about. Rachel is in school at Tisch and Mercedes is in school here in New York too. I know that she, Sam and Puck had that deal with Warner Music, but they only moved here in August." He sounded confused.

Emma and I exchanged telling looks. "You really don't pay any attention to the world around you at all do you Schuester? Did you have to take a lot of yoga to be able to get your head that far up your own ass? Doesn't that brillo pad you call hair give you indigestion rubbing against your stomach that way?"

"Sue, if you just called to insult me; I can save the school board a lot of money by hanging up now." He whined.

I chuckled. "You really don't have any idea. Jones…the black girl that both the Pillsbury Dough Girl and I saw for the talent she is, the one you only used to sway in the background behind Berry and belt out glory notes until your entire choir rebelled, the one who basically won you nationals year before last and then won it for Cochrane last year...beating your 'Chosen One'."

"Mercedes, I get who you are talking about…I just don't get what you are talking about, about her."

"Have you listened to the radio this morning, William?" I said his name the same way most people say 'Ebola'.

"No."

"Have you not looked at any of the industry papers yet this morning, William?" This time I went for the same level of disgust people say 'Dahmer or Bundy'.

"No, Sue, can you please get to the point, I have to be at the theatre by noon." He grumbled.

"Happily, since now I know it is going to wreck your entire day. Mercedes Jones is starring in a major motion picture that will hit theatres the week of Christmas. Aretha along with Lady Lips and Jailbird are all featured on the movie's soundtrack. A soundtrack which hit stores yesterday. The soundtrack has already sold over two hundred thousand copies on iTunes. Commune renamed their group KAMA, probably to keep from having to credit me on the liner notes but whatever. Their single from the soundtrack has already hit a hundred thousand downloads. Jones' singles, of which she has three solos on the album, average out to about a hundred and fifty thousand downloads a piece. Her video for the soundtrack's first official single, a duet with Etta and Jill Scott, has already topped half a million views on Youtube. Even Robert Christgau gave them great reviews. But I guess since none of this involved your beloved 'Rachet' it doesn't penetrate your bubble of hateration…huh?"

'Oh, good one.' The female, more annoying, Carrot Top mouthed. She was enjoying this way too much for it to simply be a case of 'I told you so'.

Sideshow Will seemed shocked. "I…I hadn't heard. I've been very busy with practice."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh yeah, and how many times have you managed to see Frodo Berry since she got to New York?"

"Not often. I got her tickets to see a play or two, and helped her arrange a vocal piece for one of her classes." He hedged. If he admitted to seeing her three or four times it was probably three times that many. "I saw Santana when I was near NYU, but I didn't get a chance to speak with her." I doubted that he even bothered to try.

"Well, it's all over their Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and Instagram accounts. But let me guess...you never bothered to 'friend' or 'follow' any of your students other than Berry and FrankenTeen." I drawled while Emma pointed at me and then touched her nose. "You know it sucks to be you, William. You backed the wrong horse and now the kids who could actually give you a boost up your ladder credit me and Shelby Cochrane with their success."

He scoffed. "My kids all know I cared about them."

"I don't know if you're trying to lie to me or just yourself." I told him with a sneer he couldn't see. "You know what, though? I will give you that statement...Hudson and Berry, they _did_ know that you cared about them. But I know for a fact that both Jones and Hummel used to think you were both racist and homophobic. You growing a backbone near the end of their junior year may have convinced them that you weren't an intolerant ignoramus; however now they consider you to be a weak and pathetic idiot." I have to admit that I positively glowed while imparting this particular tidbit of information.

"I was not weak or pathetic or an idiot." Will defended.

I laughed loud enough to cover Emma's disbelieving giggles. "Buttchin, I'm going to give you one example that truly exemplifies the fact that you were and still are a weak, pathetic idiot. Remember back to not long after you first formed your dumbass glee club, you got fooled into thinking that your controlling, domineering wife was pregnant… to the point that she was supposedly showing? She commanded you to give up everything that you loved even while she lied to you about said fake ass pregnancy…and you did it. The worst part is that that wasn't even the worst/best example of how weak, pathetic and idiotic you really are."

"Good bye Sue." He tried to cut me off.

Fortunately he was too weak and lily livered to actually hang up in my face. "You'll go when I'm done tormenting you with the sins of your past, Bustin Timberfake. Now, I have it on good authority that one of the reasons you refused to put Martha Wash front and center was because you felt that she didn't have the right look. One that the judges could go for. One that would get the dirty old men all hot and bothered. Well allow me to disabuse you of that thought as well. Apparently someone… 'Young Burt Reynolds'," I added soto voice, "created a fan page dedicated just to her massive, though firm from months of hard work and conditioning on the part of yours truly, backside. Said fan page now has a quarter of a million followers. In preparation for this call I also found a fan site now dedicated to all parts of the voluptuous Sassy Hag started by some Japanese Businessman offering her ridiculously large amounts of yen for her dirty lingerie. I believe that we can agree that your stupid supposition was just that...stupid...and that it was totally without merit."

"It wasn't that." He tried to defend.

"Well the please explain to me what it actually was. What reason did you have for always elevating the the Munchkin above the Diva? Clearly the Diva has more talent…discovered and offered a recording contract before she even graduated high school. Her ambition and drive seem to surpass your precious Berry's too. Full time student, full time artist…and according to a person I happen to have blackmail material on in the Columbia registrar's office, she's carrying a three point six so far for her first semester while recording an album and launching a soundtrack. Obviously she is at least as attractive to the male subspecies. The fansite springing up and the constantly rising numbers of followers on her Instagram work as proof of that. She has shown that she is definitely smarter; after all no matter how you slice it, Ivy League trumps all others. So please, Will, enlighten me. What logical reason could you possibly have had for backing Berry over Jones?"

All there was, was silence, followed shortly thereafter by the buzzing of a busy signal. Ginger Rogers looked over at me and giggled. "Guess he couldn't think of a single one."

I smirked. "You know Emmy Lou Pasty…you aren't half bad when you take a step onto the dark side. You should join me over here…we have cookies." I left her to her pre-break cleaning and started plotting how I was going to find out what Schuester had done to make her finally see him for the curly haired jellyfish he was …yup the life of Sue Sylvester was damn near perfect…if only that last bell would hurry up and ring.

**Try (Colbie Caillat)  
><strong>_Quinn PoV_

I had found a home at Yale that I honestly thought I would never find outside the bedroom I had resided in at the Jones home sophomore year. I had hoped to like my roommate, but Taylor was above and beyond any mere hope. She was a dream roommate. She was like the perfect blend of Mercedes and Santana with enough Moma Dani in her to keep her nice and mellow. Topanga and Kat were meshing well with each other and with Taylor and me too. In fact we made plans to spend a girls weekend in Manhattan after we all returned from Thanksgiving. James' roommates have almost all assimilated well with my roommates. Only Victor still had trouble getting along with the rest of us. To us he seemed to be too reticent and quiet and I think that the rest of us were loud enough to draw attention to him and his creeper type watching of everyone he encountered. I was hopeful that since his five roommates were outgoing people…for the most part…Victor might actually evolve from his creepiness and into something resembling normal human behavior. Unfortunately things outside the dorm weren't quite as perfect.

A lot of the guys around that campus were really just assholes. They seemed to think that simply because they had money they had the right to have whatever or whoever they wanted. Including me. Perhaps because I had the look of a WASP princess, all the self-important WASP princes decided that I should leave James and become my mother. For the most part I had no problem handling them. But it was starting to cause a strain in my relationship with James. He felt justifiably disrespected and really wanted to put those guys into their place…especially a doucehbag named 'Biff' McIntosh. McIntosh was old money. His grandfather had known my grandparents and according to Biff he'd always regretted the fact that Grandfather won the heart of lady fair. He seemed to think that he would regain some sort of family honor by gaining me as his 'future Mrs. McIntosh'. The jackass seemed to think that the way to go about that was to hit on me in front of James. Then he seemed shocked when his advances were rebuffed. Biff had redoubled his efforts after James had trounced him in an in class debate in their shared microeconomics class. Apparently the idiot thought that the perfect revenge for what was an abject humiliation was to try even harder to steal James girl. However, I had finally learned to be loyal and faithful. I wasn't undoing three years of hard work to fool around with a dickhead and hurt another really good man.

It was all coming to a violent head very quickly, so I decided that James and I needed some time away. The weekend in New York, helping Mercedes, Sam and Noah been a nice breather and really had strengthened our relationship. It allowed us to reconnect physically and to have some time to relax and talk about our feelings and what had been going on with us and around campus. I hoped that a date weekend in New Haven would have the same effect. Yale even made it easy for us. None of our friends' schools released classes before the Tuesday before Thanksgiving; however Yale didn't have any classes after Friday afternoon the week before Turkey Day. I asked James if he would simply tell his mother that we'd be home early Monday rather than Saturday. Then I told him to pack as if he were leaving on Friday as we'd originally planned.

"Peaches, what have you got planned?" He asked me after agreeing to do as I'd asked. Then he kissed me until I was breathless.

I smiled. "It was supposed to be a surprise, but…I guess I can clue you in. We're leaving campus and spending all day Saturday and Sunday until check out on Monday together, just the two of us." I said as I wrapped my arms around his waist. "No, idiots trying to step to your girl. None of the black girls on campus seeing us together and shooting me death glares. No one bothering us, or telling us we're too loud. No Harrison or Brad needing something from your room. No Taylor rushing in with her hands over her eyes for her charger because Chad was supposed to call her and her battery was low. Just you and me and a king sized bed." I leaned into him, biting back a moan at the thought of having more than a few uninterrupted minutes with him.

"Why, Miss Fabray, whatever shall we do for an entire weekend with just the two of us and a king sized bed?" James taunted before capturing my lips in a searing kiss. I could feel him getting hard against my stomach and really, really wished that it was a lot closer to Friday afternoon. "I guess since you told me your surprise, I can tell you mine. I made us reservations for Zinc for Friday night. I wanted some time alone with you too."

"Zinc, oh you fancy now, huh?" I shot back teasingly.

James threw back his head and laughed, drawing multiple eyes to us. "You know the first time I saw you I thought you were as white as mayonnaise. Now you're quoting Drake?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I'm quoting the oh so hard hip hop artist from Canada who got his start on a Teen Nick show…that makes me so very ethnic."

"You make a valid point." James agreed. "So where are we gonna stay if we aren't staying in our dorm rooms?"

I shrugged. "I made us reservations too, the Courtyard. I mean, I can get something better if you don't want to stay there." I said realizing that he might really be used to going places a lot better than that. I know Mercedes' family considered Courtyard Marriots something of a last resort.

"Naw, that's fine Peaches. I don't want you to spend too much on something, well not frivolous, but not an actual necessity." He told me with a gentle, little kiss. "So what's your plan, Peaches?"

"Well, you finish your econ class at two right?" he nodded. "Well, mine is over before you go in for that one…so we can pack either my car or your SUV and head out as soon as you're done. Then we can get dressed in our room for dinner…"

He smiled his sexiest smile. "I'm loving that plan…and after dinner you can be my dessert."

The week before November Recess began crawled by. It really seemed as if there were like thirty five hours in every day rather than just twenty four. However, I did use all that time wisely. I kept my depo appointment at Student Health Services, I managed to get a slot at what seemed to be the only place in New Haven that actually did waxing services and got everything taken care of on that front. I even took a couple of hours, drove to Milford and hit the mall with Taylor, Topanga and Kat. By the time we left Victoria's Secret, the shopping card Russell had given me before school started was totally tapped out, but it was well worth it.

Friday morning I packed my bags very carefully. I had my two large rolling bags that would go with me to Lima, and a smaller one that was full of the six different lingerie sets and three date appropriate dresses as well as the matching heels and accessories. I only bothered to take one day trip outfit since I didn't really plan to leave the room much at all. Both James and I made time to load our bags into the back of his SUV before our first classes. Topanga was heading home after her last class as was Kat. Taylor didn't feel it was a good use of her resources to fly home to Utah for just a week, so she was staying and working on three different projects for her classes and her extracurriculars. I had invited her home with me, but she was very serious about all the extra stuff she was doing and trying to get the freshman female spot on the student advisory council second semester. She was driven in a way that was far more than even I was used to, and I had been mentored by Sue Sylvester.

That afternoon after James finished his economics class, I met him outside Stiles Hall. Our hello kiss quickly grew heated and I knew for sure that I'd made the right choice in arranging us some time alone. We ignored McIntosh's borderline racist comments to our love and made our way quickly to James' car. We had both made sure to say goodbye to our roommates before we left for classes that morning. I think it took longer to walk to James car than it ever had before. The drive to the hotel wasn't very long and check in went smoothly despite the fact that James was teasing me to the point that I was ready to throw him to the lobby floor and have my way with him right then and there. Our room was on the fifth floor, a nice room with a king sized bed, TV, dresser and table. James had brought up both of our bags. He carried them over to the room's table/desk apparatus.

As soon as his hands were free, I was back in his arms. We kissed. Despite our passionate embrace in the quad and the teasing in the lobby, it started out tentative, a seeking kiss, quickly rising in intensity. Our lips parted, tongues seeking each other out. James stood and pulled me tight. I reveled in the feeling of his strong muscles under his clothes, my hands journeying up his back and over his shoulders. All the while our tongues and lips danced, a frenzy of licking and kissing. The sensations came at me rapidly, one thing after another. First there was the feel of James's tongue in my mouth and then his lips on my neck. James kisses were always perfect. They managed to be both tender and deliciously aggressive. Next was the feel of his large, strong hands on my breasts. Even through the fabric of my bra, blouse, and sweater, James's touch sent a shiver down her torso. I let out a gentle moan.

I quickly reached down and grabbed at the bottom of his shirt, pulling it upwards. James broke off the kiss, sliding his shirt off and tossing it aside. He had a gorgeous physique that I truly loved. He was broad of shoulder and chest with exceptionally well-defined muscles. He looked like an even more built black version of Michelangelo's David. James undressed me with a deftness that only came from practice. There I stood in that hotel room, a young, pretty former cheerleader and an active member of the god-damned Ivy League, allowing James to strip me naked. I hadn't even checked to see if the drapes were close. And I found that I really didn't care. Off went my sweater, discarded as a mere annoyance. Next was my blouse, followed by the unbuttoning of my jeans. I shimmied out of them, and stood kissing James in my new jewel tone blue VS Very Sexy push-up bra and matching cheekini panties.

James kissed my neck and I couldn't help but notice my hand upon his shoulder. My English-French genetic heritage had left me with skin of the palest white. It contrasted sharply with James's deep brown flesh. I found it such a pleasing juxtaposition. On it went, James's hands expertly undoing my bra. My breasts spilled free, his hands exploring our nakedness and I moaned as his strong fingers pinched my erect nipples. I heard myself whimpering as my arousal grew, warm tingles of pleasure flowing through my torso. We were sexually in-synch, and had been since Prom night six months before, a realization which still filled me with joy. Having not made love in several weeks, the sex would be even more intense and satisfying.

James took my breasts into his mouth, sucking on each nipple in turn. I ran my hands over his bare head, pushing his face against my breasts. I knew that James loved it when I used naughty language when we were making love. I loved his reaction to my dirty talk, so I allowed myself to sink into that frame of mind. "Oh, that's so fucking good," I sighed. "Suck my tits, Baby. Please suck them hard."

James obliged, attacking my nipples enthusiastically. He truly enjoyed them despite their lack of size; that made me feel wonderfully sexy. I knew that he liked also the color of my light pink areolas. He pulled me even closer to him with growing eagerness, his hands slid down into my panties pushing them down as he massaged my ass. A few moments later I was completely naked in his arms, his face rose from my tits. We kissed our mouths wide-open and tongues battling. I reached down and unbuttoned his jeans. A surge of excitement swept her. I always loved the feeling of James' cock whether it be in my hand, mouth or my pussy.

Almost unconsciously, I dropped to my knees. James breathed in, a silly grin on his face. Yeah, I smirked to myself, he was definitely anticipating what was coming next. He knows I'm going to suck his dick and he can't wait. It was one of the things that we'd both grown to love. I didn't think I could ever tell anyone, not even Mercedes how much I enjoyed sucking James' cock. Just the thought of what I was about to do excited me even more. I unzipped his jeans, pushing them down. I almost laughed when I realized that James wore dark blue briefs almost the same color as my lingerie. A huge bulge was already stretching them. James stepped out of his jeans and I ran my hands over his thighs. They were impressive, as rock-hard and defined as the rest of his physique. I turned my attention back to his crotch. Reaching up, I pushed down his briefs and got my first look of the day at his cock. It was so big, and already almost completely hard. Eagerly, I reached out and grasped its base, stroking James up to full hardness.

I tried to guess James's length, but couldn't be certain. The only other penis I had really paid attention to had been about nine and half-inches long and felt huge on that one occasion when I had allowed it to be used on me. James was longer by more an inch, however. I had long ago reached the decision that he was around eleven inches, maybe more, with a pleasing thickness as an added bonus. Kissing the tip tenderly, I took the head into my mouth and sucked hard as James let out a happy gasp. Still grasping the base, I went to work sucking his cock. Back and forth my mouth went, sliding over his shaft. Reaching down, I sought out my clit with my free hand. A lot of women sucked cock out of a feeling of obligation or generosity. They didn't get much out of it personally. I, on the other hand, found that I enjoyed sucking James' cock. Giving him blowjobs excited me to the point that I frequently enjoyed massaging my clit while licking and sucking James' sexy erection. That time was definitely special; however, a long anticipated excitement overtaking my far more intensely than I'd ever experienced before while sucking him off. I embraced every moment of my arousal, rubbing my clit back-and-forth rapidly as I sucked James's shaft. He sighed, his hips thrusting forward in precise rhythm to my motions. Before long, he was thrusting enthusiastically forward and groaning. I sucked James for a long time, loving the feel of his rock-hard shaft sliding past my lips. I continued rubbing my clit, my very pronounced excitement still rising. It took me by surprise as it continued to grow far past what I ever believed it could become. Sure, sucking his cock turned me on, but that was something entirely new.

The thought of how hot I was getting fueled my intensity even further. I grasped James's cock harder, sucking him faster as he groaned. Suddenly, I pulled back off his cock. Moaning, I continued to stroke him furiously as I rubbed my clit. The bundled-up tension burst forth, waves of orgasm pulsing through me. I let out a long squeal, surprising myself. With James I had always cum easily, but it was still stunning to get off while sucking a cock… it had to be a rarity for a woman, a thing virtually unheard of. Then again, I mused, no other woman got to suck James' cock. When I calmed down, I looked up at James and smiled. "I really love sucking your cock," I admitted.

"I can tell," he whispered happily. I gave him a few further moments of long, leisurely sucking. Pulling away again, I admired his hard-on again. It was long and straight, a deep shade of brown glistening with my saliva. Rising, I kissed James again. I stroked his cock as our tongues danced, my head turned upwards and my blonde hair brushed my shoulders behind her. My chest was thrust outwards, James's hands all over them. I saw, out of the corner of my eye, our reflection in the hotel room's mirror. We looked like the cover of a porn DVD, his big black muscularity contrasting sharply with my white skin and svelte, feminine form. I led James over to the bed and he followed wordlessly, my hand on his erection the whole time. When we reached the edge of the bed I turned and kissed James again. I pulled him close, my hands running over his ass.

"I need you inside me, Baby," I moaned as James kissed my neck. Then, I remembered to add, "The condoms are in my purse."

"Thank God, Peaches. I didn't want to take the time to search through my bag." James groaned as he found the new box of Trojan Magnums XLs and grabbed a packet. He ripped it open and I took it from him. We kissed, I slid the condom over his cock in a single smooth motion. We fell onto the bed together, James on top. Kissing wildly, he moved his cock into position. Reaching down, I guided him inside myself. I was out-of-my-mind with arousal by that point, my pussy was soaked, and his cock met little resistance. He slid into me in one easy, smooth motion.

James started fucking me slowly, his long length sliding in-and-out in a steady tempo. He propped himself up on his arms, staring into my eyes as he made love to me. Slowly, his fucking grew more vigorous. He was an athletic, strong man, soon drilling me with a strength and intensity I had grown to love and respond to with my own vigorous arousal. He was like a machine, pounding me with the unremitting rapidity of a jackhammer. I gasped, grabbing his ass and pulling it towards me. "That's it Baby," I sighed. "Fuck me. Like that. That's it, just like that." James lowered his weight onto me fully, burying his face in my shoulder as he fucked me. It was intense and unfettered, almost brutal in its animalistic fervor and I loved every single stroke. I embraced the intensity along with James, screaming and moaning encouragement without cease. "Just like that," I begged. "Just like that. Oh, fuck! That's good." I wrapped my legs around his waist, my arms hanging onto his muscular back as he pummeled me ceaselessly. I couldn't contain my ardor. "Oh, fuck yeah!" I howled. "Give it to me, James! Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me!"

I came again, waves of joyous release pouring over me and carrying me even farther aloft on a tide of erotic frenzy. The final throes were a cacophony of screams and shattering bursts of pleasure arriving one after the other. Throughout it all, there was James's full weight and masculine strength atop my, his cocking driving into me without cease. Then James was kissing me again, the feel of his lips and tongue added to everything else going on. Closing my eyes, I rode out the rest of my orgasm in delighted satisfaction. A short time later, my passion finally drew James into the maelstrom with me. He began moaning intensely. Then he froze, pushing his cock into me as deeply as he could. I felt it throbbing and pulsing inside me, a look of profound release and satisfaction upon James's face.

I felt the last lingering pulsations of James's cock inside me. When it was over, James breathed out and we looked at each other. James kissed me playfully and pulled out. We lay side by side, staring up at the ceiling catching our breath. "That was..." He started to say, searching for the right words. "Absolutely fucking amazing."

"I couldn't have put it better myself."

He retreated to the bathroom to get rid of the condom. When he got back we got under the covers and I snuggled against him, James wrapping an arm around my shoulders. Neither of us moved or said much, not wanting to break off the sense of quiet intimacy that followed energetic, vigorous lovemaking. I moved my hand down to James's cock. It had grown soft again. Despite the satisfaction I'd been overcome with moments before, I was already yearning for more. I massaged and stroked James, craning my neck to kiss his lips. He returned my kisses, his arousal slowly returning. Soon his cock was hard again. I glanced at the alarm clock on the room's nightstand. "It's only four thirty," I observed. "Do we have time for another go-round?"

"Definitely." He told me as he reached for another condom. We made love again and then got up and showered together. I moisturized my face and hands with a thick rich face cream and my body with Nest Fragrances moss and mint body cream. I loved the way the cream made me smell. With its light, subtle apple blossom and lily of the valley fragrance, I didn't need any perfume. Then I drew on a blush pink DKNY seductive lights balconette bra, French thong and garter set. Since it was fall in the northeast, I pulled on a pair of ultra sheer, barely noticeable, thigh high stockings and affixed them to the garter straps. I did my makeup carefully. I avoided the fresh faced innocent look I'd have worn before I met James. Instead I went with a young and trendy smokey eye and dewy, nude lip. I left my hair a little wild rather than smoothing it into a sleek bob.

As I stepped into bedroom of the hotel room, I wondered for a moment if we could cancel our reservation and stay in the room. He was standing there in just his dark gray slacks, barefooted and bare chested, his back lotioned and almost shiny like freshly polished mahogany. I felt myself getting wet just staring at the wide, sexy expanse of muscles and smooth skin. I drew his attention as he pulled on a wife beater covering himself from my eyes. Without turning around James chuckled. "Sorry Peaches, as hungry as I am for you, my stomach is talking to my backbone. We're going to make our reservations, so get dressed." He commanded. I found that that had only made my predicament even worse. My panties were soaking.

However, I did want him to keep up his strength, so I made myself focus on getting dressed. I donned the coral lace over silk sheath mini dress with its adorable lace three quarter length sleeves. The dress slipped over my modest curves making my legs look long and lean. I further enhanced the illusion of mile long legs with my nude suede, almond toe platform four and a half inch evening pumps. The beigey, tan suede was dotted with rhinestones giving them a sparkle perfect for an evening out. When I stood, James was already behind me pressing kissed to my neck as he zipped up my dress. I threw the necessities into the clutch that matched my shoes and we headed out to the restaurant. Ten short minutes later we'd arrived.

Zinc was an iconic New Haven restaurant not far from the other side of campus. It was the place to eat in New Haven boasting a strict adherence to a seed to plate, local harvest philosophy. It was way fancier than anywhere I had ever gone to eat other than going to the Club with my parents. It was certainly the most expensive date I'd ever gone on. James must have been thinking the same thing. "We've come a long way from Breadstix in Lima, huh?" he whispered as the maitre d showed us to our table.

Our waiter, Ginger, was very kind. She was an older black woman who was efficient and friendly without seeming overtly bothersome. After she took our drink orders, James asked her for appetizer recommendations and she smile widely. "Try the grilled shrimp. They come with gingered red curry sauce, pineapple and pumpkin confit and are served on a scallion pancake. If you have a shellfish allergy or objection then you can go with the vegan sweet potato risotto which is accompanied by porcini mushrooms and fried Brussels sprouts. The duck Nachos are also very popular as is the organic greens salad. But the shrimp and the risotto are my personal favorites."

I nodded. "The risotto sounds delicious. I'd like to try it."

"I'll take the shrimp." James told her also going with her recommendation. The conversation between James and I had progressed from talk of our classes and professors to a small debate as to the small, sustainable growth the nation's economy was gaining versus the larger gains that people had hoped for and really needed when Ginger came back with both our drinks and our starter course. We quickly halved our appetizers and traded them so that we'd both gain the full experience of Ginger's recommendations and she had been amazingly right. They were both amazing. When she returned to take our main course order, we decided to allow her to choose for us.

"Any dietary constraints or allergies?" she asked before she agreed.

I shook my head. "I love bacon, but other than that I'm a pretty normal omnivore." James pointed out that loving bacon was part of being a normal omnivore before he too agreed that he would have no problems with whatever she brought out for us. We talked some more, moving from economics and politics to music and how awesome Mercedes duet with Jill Scott had been. The video had premiered in advance of the record release which we both agreed we were buying on that Tuesday as soon as we could. James said he had even sent out a reminder to his whole family to actually buy the album rather than downloading it from any of the free sites. His uncle was already hyping it up on his radio and television shows. Jill Scott was a good friend of the Steve Harvey Morning Show, she had even acted a guest host a few times. James knowing MeDe just made him work even harder to get the numbers up on the soundtrack and movie.

When Ginger returned, she came bring not only our dinner but refills of my water with lemon and James Coke. The plate she sat down before James was their sea scallops entree. Seven large round sea scallops, grilled to perfection, lay on a bed of sweet carrot risotto and garnished with a preserved lemon wedge. Beside that lay broccoleaf tossed with pickled mustardseed. My own plate looked just as wonderful. She served me Zinc's Tuna, grilled yellowfin with tamari cure, vegetable spring rolls, fried spinach tossed with wasabi oil and a chile-garlic sauce. Of course we shared our meals with each other. His scallops were amazing and the carrot was even better than the sweet potato one that we'd had during the first course. We both loved the grilled tuna and the spring rolls were awesome. After dinner we decided to continue the theme of allowing Ginger to pick for us. Her selections were just as on point for dessert as they were with the other two courses.

She had opted to give James the flourless Mexican chocolate cake which came with a delicious milk chocolate and chile soup topped coconut-milk chocolate foam and drizzled with salted caramel gelato. She placed the other plate in front of me and I almost swooned in delight. There were three praline financiers, drizzled with Meyer lemon curd and accompanied with a demi tasse of cappuccino semifreddo. We each tasted everything and were so happy with the results that Ginger ended up getting a fifty three dollar tip. There were many who would have balked at basically tipping fifty percent, but the meal was so great and we'd not have had as pleasant a dinner without her. But we did leave before she came back to see how much we had left for her.

After dinner we went for a short walk in a nearby park before returning to our hotel room and basically making love for the rest of the weekend. We flew back to Ohio, flying to Cleveland where we spent Monday and Tuesday with his family before heading to Lima to spend Wednesday evening with the New Directions. We got there before Burt or Carole got home and let ourselves in to find almost all of our friends in the basement chilling out and teasing Finn. I was able to get in a good taunt of my own. I'm sure that he was expecting me to harass him about what had happened between him and Lauren, but I knew that I hadn't been faithful long enough to be able to throw stones. Besides…his face was red as hell, MeDe's handy work if I wasn't mistaken. We talked and chatted. Playing with my Beth and Azimio's Robyn, catching up and asking a million and three questions of Mercedes, Sam and Puck about the big party they had attended the night before.

"It was like two in the morning before we got home. Then we boned until Mercedes had to do that phone interview with a radio station out of Atlanta with Ms. Jill." Puck laughingly told us. "We had to take sleep this afternoon because we never managed to do more than catch a few cat naps since like Monday."

"So was it worth it?" Adams asked them.

Puck nodded vigorously. "Of course it was worth it. Cede did that special thing with her tongue that I like and Sam busted off all over her tits for me." he responded happily.

Sam reached over and pushed Puck off the edge of the coffee table he was sitting on. "You're so lucky you're so hot. Yes, Adams, working our asses off and never really getting enough sleep is worth it. The numbers are soaring on iTunes and I really think we're gonna make it. I'd apologize for Puck, but we all know my boyfriend."

The rest of our friends laughed, but Vince raised his hand. "Umm…I know I'm new and all but I cannot be the only one wanting to know that the special thing with her tongue is, right?"

Blaine chuckled. "Oh, you aren't. Even I want to know. Cedes has given me some amazing things to try on Kurt and he always loves them."

"Oh was she the one who told you about the spiral lick trick?" Kurt gasped. Blaine nodded emphatically. "Mercedes Antoinette Jones, you are supposed to be my best friend. How could you teach Blaine how to do that and not me." he said his voice filled with offense.

MeDe rolled her eyes. "And he used it on you didn't he? Boom! Best friend of the year right here."

"I wanna know." I whined.

Dave nodded. "Come on Jones, inquiring minds wanna know." He challenged.

MeDe looked embarrassed, but she was not about to back down from her former bully. "Fine. It's just kind of a spiral swirl lick when you're going down on your man. Don't just keep on moving up and down; use your tongue to slowly wind around his cock. Swirl up the shaft with the tip of your tongue and then when you're at the top, slide your whole mouth down and then up, with really strong suction."

"You can do it on other places too…" Blaine said mysteriously.

James and I exchanged a long look before we both started laughing. "It is so surreal to know that Kurt Hummel is 'doing _that_'." The rest of the room joined the laughter. Finn had apparently shared with his roommate how uptight Kurt had always been. To be honest he still was; he just made allowances for the messiness that is sex. The night disintegrated into ever increasing game of teasing and taunting one-upmanship. It was great.

James and I made it back to Cleveland the next day after spending the night in my room. We had breakfast with Shelby, Beth, Frannie and David…he and Shelby were still claiming to be just friends, but I noticed that there were certainly a whole lot of Spanish packaged foods in the fridge and pantry and Beth was calling him 'Viejo'. My little girl was already better at Spanish than Mr. Schuester had ever been.

Then we went to James' mom's house and Ms. Kyleen welcomed me to the family in much the same way Mama Dani originally had, with large amounts of amazing tasting food. She served the bottles of wine I had brought her from my parent's wine cellar, which Daddy had had put in just a year before everything had changed. It was really just a walk-in closet that had been lined with cedar and oak shelves. But they had about a hundred bottles down there. Probably they wouldn't miss two.

I wasn't the only white girl there, two of James male cousins had white wives and another had a white girlfriend. Though when I mentioned that my soul sister was a black girl who was pretty much married to white guys some of the younger men, including one who was there with his white wife, had a problem with that. James shut him down with a quickness. Then his wife took a turn at him. It was really funny and the rest of the family let him know that he was being a huge hypocrite too. Dinner lasted for like the rest of the day. On Saturday, James, his immediate family and I went back to Lima and spent the day with my family. Kyleen fell all kinds of in love with Beth and the feeling was completely mutual. By the end of the day Beth was chanting 'Nonna' wanting Kyleen to stay with her forever. It almost broke my heart the next morning when we had to leave as well and Beth hugged us both and said she would miss us. Mercedes, and her crew stopped by to say good bye to Beth before they headed out too. Saul and Mills asked Shelby if it would be okay if Beth was their flower girl at their wedding ceremony the next summer.

The flight back to Yale was quick. James and I were stronger than ever and I was secure that Beth was growing to love him as much as a daughter should. If anyone had told me eighteen months before that I would be as happy, honestly truly happy as I was that Thanksgiving I doubt I would have been capable of believing them. I still had trouble believing that I deserved it. But unlike poor Finn…whether I deserved it or not. I was happy and I would do whatever it took to stay that way.

**California Love (Tupac)**  
><em>Tina PoV<em>

I had found my place in life and it was California. No one looked at me strangely if I was a little weird and liked to dress as if I was either fresh off the set of 'The Originals' or an Austin Powers movie. No one huffed and grumbled behind me in line at the coffeehouse if I ordered a tall, half whole, half skim, caramel macchiato with two extra shots of espresso and three extra shots of caramel. Heck, chances were that their order was just as convoluted and complex as mine. There were tons of things to do on campus, tons of things to do in the area. In order to not lose track of things and end up flunking out of school, I forced myself to get into a routine early and to stick to it.

I had six classes, a lab and my freshman seminar every week. My plan was to get my core curriculum classes out of the way by the end of my first semester sophomore year and then I would be able to concentrate completely on my major classes. On odd days, my first class started at nine, American History, and my last class ended at two. Then on Tuesday and Thursday my classes didn't start until ten and other than my six o'clock biology lab on Tuesday and my four o'clock music seminar class on Thursday, I was done by three. Since I didn't have to be up at five thirty or six, getting up at seven or seven thirty to go for a run with DJ wasn't as hard as I thought it would have been. We'd run from Stern Hall all the way to the MLK Jr. Student Union and then back to the dorm. After we showered and got dressed, we'd head to breakfast and DJ would head off to class while I'd head to the library. Usually I'd use that hour or two to get any work done I needed to do for class. I much preferred studying and working on papers while everyone else was in class. That allowed me to play CoD or Halo in the evenings when there were people in the dorm to play with.

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after American History, I had psych one oh one, and finished off with freshman Latin. I'd taken Latin in middle school, my Dad was certain that it would help improve my science grades, it hadn't. But it was recommended for anyone who was going to take a lot of different foreign languages. Which I was going to have to do to satisfy some of my music requirements if I ended up going for a music masters degree. Probably I would have gotten bored with so many hours left between the end of my last class and the start of dinner, and I knew that going back to the room was a bad habit I probably shouldn't pick up, but there was a modern dance class that I picked up at the extension course building that filled up time and would only help me over all. On even days, my day started with an hour long writing course. Then I had the class portion of my biology class. And it ended with my global poverty and practice class. I used the time between the end of globe pov and the beginning of my lab to study. The very first lab had taught me not to eat dinner right before bio lab. My stomach just wasn't that strong. It was great since DJ's bio section shared our lab time she and I were lab partners.

When people learned that my roommate was also my lab partner they wonder if that wasn't too much time together, but the truth was that I freaking loved my roommate, which was completely unexpected. She was just so normal, so Type A, but still so…so sweet. Her family was just as bad. Every Sunday when her dad brought her back, he vacuumed the room for us with some special, super high tech, hepa filtering vacuum cleaner. Her 'godfather' was a comedian/radio host/ad jingle writer, who told the perfect jokes for every situation…but he never seemed to know when to stop telling them. Her uncle was a club owner/ radio host/garage band musician/ad jingle writer who was totally obsessed with his hair. But I had to say he had some of the best hair I'd ever seen on a guy. He'd heard me singing around the room one of the times he'd come to get DJ and had offered me a spot with his band whenever I needed cash. I was seriously thinking of taking him up on that. Everything in Cali was way more expensive than it was in Lima. When they had found out that Mike and I weren't going to be able to go home for Thanksgiving, they immediately invited us to their house for the big meal.

Mike was another wonderful part of being in California. He and I had a skype date every evening at eight. Since his course load was twice as full as mine, his days started at six. He got up every morning to go work out and practice whatever moves they were learning in his dance classes at the time. Then he showered, ate and headed off to his eight am organic chem class. He had what DJ and Nevel both called his 'real' classes until one or one thirty, depending on the day, then he had his dance and performance classes in the afternoons. He was so happy. Every Friday after his last class he threw some clothes in a bag and drove over from Stanford to spend the weekend with me. We would skype with whichever of the New Directions was around, eat dinner, veg out and make love. Making love was interesting on the twin bed, but it had caused us to explore our sexual creativity and it had led to us discovering my new favorite position. We slept tightly wound together to make sure that neither of us would hit the floor during the course of the night.

We'd decided that since we wouldn't have time to drive back to Lima for Thanksgiving holiday and we couldn't afford to fly back, we'd save up and get a room at a hotel for the break. It was a great idea. We checked in after classes on Tuesday and other than running out to grab take out for lunch and dinner, we made love and worked on school stuff. We barely got dressed at all other than Thursday. On Thanksgiving, we woke up at nine that morning and took a long, hot, sexy shower together. I got dressed first in a beautiful deep peach colored silk and lace bra and panty set before pulling on a gorgeous jersey, blue, retro, mixed paisley print, fit and flare dress that I had gotten from the BCBG outlet during the shopping spree. I knew that we'd be around a family and the dress was long enough without being dowdy. Paired with a pair of wedges that played up the melon pink in the midst of the all the blues, the dress looked fresh and young while still giving a nod to the sixties. Mike climbed into a pair of black jeans and a blue pull over. Once he shoved his feet into socks and shoes we headed out. We swung through Berkeley so that I could grab the hostess gift that I'd accidentally left wrapped in the top of my closet and we followed the directions DJ had given us to get to her house at 1882 Girard Street. It was a thirty minute drive and despite having been alone together for pretty much forty-eight hours by that point we still had plenty to talk about.

Thanksgiving Dinner was a blast. Mr. Tanner and his fiancée, Vicki, 'Uncle Jessie', as he allowed me to start calling him, and Becky, Joey, DJ's boyfriend Steve and best friend Kimmy Gibbler, as well as DJ, her sisters Stephanie and Michelle and Jessie and Becky's twin sons Alex and Nicky and then Mike and me all sat down to eat at a little after two. The food was okay, but the entertainment was what made the drive worth it. Kimmy and the adult males all taunted and teased each other to the point that DJ was looking ready to die of embarrassment. Stephanie got in quite a few zingers herself. But Vicki, Becky, Michelle all stayed out of it, just groaning and rolling their eyes at particularly bad jokes and laughing at the best ones.

I had given the Tanner family a board game called 'Telestrations'. I had found it online by checking for games that would work well for very large families and accommodate the wide range of ages in the Tanner family. 'Telestrations' is like a game of 'Telephone' – the game where a person whispers in another person's ear, who in turn whispers to another person, and so on. Then see how messed up it gets after going through a number of people. But with Telestrations one person writes a phrase, the next person draws a picture of that phrase. Then the picture is passed to another person and they write what they think the picture is. Then it goes to another person who draws a picture of that new phrase. And on it goes. But unlike Telephone, everyone is writing and drawing the whole time – so there isn't any downtime waiting for it to come around. After dessert, Mr. Tanner insisted that we give it a go. That was truly even more fun than dinner had been. The Tanner family may be very nice and really kind…but they were cutthroat competitors when it came to playing games. We finally begged out at around six and we made love until exhaustion overtook us.

The rest of the weekend flew by. Before I was ready, Mike was dropping me off at my dorm before running to the airport to pick up Nevel. Those two had bonded really well. I was glad that Nevel really had changed from the asshole he'd been in the videos online. I had had thoughts of introducing Nevel to DJ and seeing if sparks flew, but then I'd met him face to face and realized that the only one of my friends I could possibly introduce him to and have sparks fly would have been Karofsky, and really he wasn't a friend…not really…more like he was friend adjacent. Anyway once we got back to campus, we had two weeks before finals when culminated right before we went home for Christmas. We knuckled under so hard, DJ didn't go home until she left campus the day before Mike and I headed back to Lima to spent the almost month long break.

I never realized how much I would love California…how much I would truly enjoy college and the whole college life experience. But I was quickly turning into a full fledge California Girl, and I kind of liked it.

**When I Think About Cheating (Gretchen Wilson)**  
><em>Finn PoV<em>

Talking everything through with Puck and the guys had really helped. It was a huge relief to know that chances were good that I'd been too drunk to get a usable erection. The thought that I had slept with that girl had made me throw up more than once. The thought that I could hurt Lauren like that was just gross. The next morning while Kurt, Vince and Mom were in the kitchen making dinner, Burt asked me how things were at school and everything just spilled out. When he looked at me, I could see the disappointment in his face. "Finn, your mother told you about what happened with your biological father and his trouble with drugs and alcohol." I nodded. It had come out the year before when I was trying to decide on what to do if I didn't get into any of the colleges I'd applied to. "That kind of thing usually runs in bloodlines. Maybe you should avoid drinking hard liquor all together."

"You really think so?" I asked him.

Burt nodded a little. "I know everyone thinks that partying is just part of the college experience, but binge drinking like that isn't good for anybody. If you have addictive personality disorder running in your family it can only lead to bad things. Bad things like passing out and ending up breaking your own heart as well as the heart of a young lady who was better to you than any other girl you've ever dated. Or even worse things."

"I don't ever want to feel like I did that next morning ever again." I admitted. "The hangover, not the 'oh Grilled Cheezus please tell me I didn't' moment. That was even worse than the pain and extremely aggressive need to hurl."

"So don't drink. I haven't had anything more than a beer or two since before Kurt was born, and I don't feel like I've missed out on anything." Burt told me with a gentle smile.

He made it seem so easy. But that's when I realized that it would be very easy not to drink, especially before I turned twenty-one. And probably even after. I heard one senior say that any DD who could drive stick was worth their weight in gold. I could be that guy. That guy would be a lot better to be than being the guy who gets falling down drunk. "I've been doing the counseling that Lauren said I needed and I think it is helping. I mean, I never realized that I had abandonment issues that made me cling to the girls I was with even if they weren't right for me. Dr. Baker thinks that the flip side of that was messing up things with Lauren…giving her an excuse to leave as a kind of self…self…"

"Self-fulfilling prophecy?" he supplied. "Yeah, sometimes when we really fear something, we end up making that very thing happen."

"But what can I do about it now? How do I fix things?" I felt my chest getting tight like it does when I need to cry but everything is too intense to let the tears through.

Burt grasped my shoulder like he did when he was trying to give me or Kurt some of his strength. "You're gonna have to give her time, Son. You're gonna have to rebuild the trust that was broken. Have you been seeing other girls while you're supposed to be doing the friend thing with Lauren?"

I shook my head. "There is this one girl that keeps asking me out, she is one of the other Buckeye cheerleaders, not the one I woke up next to…a different one. But she is skinny and flat chested, the only thing that she has going for her really is her hair is really pretty."

Burt shook his head, "Let me guess, her hair is long and thick and medium brown." He muttered. When I nodded he laughed. "So her hair is like Lauren's. You can't replace Lauren with a knock off...it's not fair to either girl to try. And I will say that if you want Lauren to take you back, dating anyone other than her…sleeping with anyone other than her...is a very, very bad idea."

Then the game came on and Burt and I turned our attention to the TV. All through the game and dinner I tried to think about everything I needed to say to Lauren. Before I went to bed I texted her and asked if we could get together and talk the next day. She texted me back that she was going shopping in the morning with her mom but we could hook up after lunch. The morning crept by. I'd gotten up early and Vince and I ran to McKinley, snuck into the weight room using my key to the auditorium. I did push-ups until I just couldn't anymore before I moved on to my back to do as many crunches as I could stomach. Vince chose to work out with the weights instead. Then we ran back home showered and packed up our stuff. We would need to leave Lima right after lunch to make the buses which were pulling out at four o'clock. We said our goodbyes to Kurt and Burt and mom and then we headed out. We met Lauren at the mall. Vince was nice enough to go and find a girl to flirt with while Lauren and I talked.

"Alright Hudson, spill." She commanded. I got hard as a rock. I knew she didn't mean to, but she'd totally sounded like she did when she was Ma'am giving Finnie orders.

"I…I" oh god…dead mailman. "I want to talk to you about us. I think that now that we've had a cooling off period and I've been seeing Dr. Baker for a while now…maybe now will be a good time to talk about what happened and how we can move past it."

Lauren looked at me. I couldn't help but wonder if she had been taking lessons from Mercedes in reading people's souls just by looking at them. "Okay, I'm willing to believe that you didn't sleep with the cheerchick, but how do I know that this isn't going to be a cycle? You fuck up, I break up with you. You apologize and try and win me back…I finally take you back and we're good for a while, then you do something else boneheaded and fuck up again?"

"I, well I mean…I know that I need to rebuild the trust that I broke with you. So I'm not going to drink any more…like ever. Cause, I mean drugs and alcohol killed my real dad so touching them would be a bad idea for me anyway." I told her honestly. "And I'm gonna stay faithful to you even if we aren't together."

"Really?" she scoffed. "Because that Christy girl on the squad swears that she's going to be your next girlfriend."

"Who is Christy?" I asked confused.

Lauren softened a little. "Good answer."

"Lauren, I don't want anyone else. I promise. The thought that I had slept with that girl that night bothered me so bad that I couldn't eat. I dropped ten pounds. Coach is happy, but I'm miserable." I told her hoping that she would hear the truth in my words. That she would feel how much I still loved her.

She gave me that deep, searching look again. "Alright Finn…we can work on rebuilding the trust between us. But it doesn't mean we're automatically back together. It means that we're working on getting back together. You're going to have to promise not to drink and to continue to see Dr. Baker. I'll look into getting some help with trusting you again. But Finn…you need to put that cheer bitch in check next time she tries to push up on you. The fact that you haven't isn't helping the whole trust thing…at all."

After talking to Burt I understood what she meant. I'd kind of been stringing the girl along hoping that if I didn't get Lauren back I could use the other girl so I wouldn't be completely alone. That was a shitty thing to do to both of them. "I'll make sure that she understands that even if you never take me back, I'm gonna stay loyal to you. You are who I want."

"Okay, you do that and we'll take a month to six weeks to work on the whole trust thing." Lauren said sternly. "Then we can try dating…but there won't be any Finnie and Ma'am time until we can both trust each other and make sure that I won't hurt you physically…because to be honest there are still times when I want to punch you in your face."

I didn't want to have to wait so long, but it was my own stupid fault. So I couldn't not accept her terms. "Okay. we didn't do much in the way of dating last time. This will be our chance to make things different. I mean…"

"I get it Finn. Now you owe Vince a whole lot. If he hadn't told me that you cried yourself to sleep every night that first week and how you've been pretty much depressed since we broke up…I don't think I'd be willing to give this whole thing another shot." I nodded and tried to think of what I could do for Vince to thank him. "Finn…I…it really hurt me that you didn't…that I wasn't more important to you than partying and getting fucked up…that I wasn't worth enough for you to be faithful." She finally said quietly.

"It was never that. You are so important. You mean so much to me. If you didn't I would never have fucked up. I just…I love you Lauren. I love you so much. Part of me kept waiting for you to be disappointed in me and leave…so I made it happen." I whispered.

"I have insecurities too Finn. And you played into all of them. It is gonna take us time and work to get over this." She told me sternly. I nodded. "You'd better hit the road. If you want to make starter next year, you can't be late to games and shit."

"You're right." I said gathering our stuff to throw away. "Lauren…thank you." I drew her into a hug.

We parted on good terms and over the course of the week we started working on rebuilding our relationship…becoming us again. We also looked into doing some kind of couples counseling with one of the school's psych professors. A few of them, like Dr. Baker, were available to talk with the students and help them with their problems. But because Lauren had her Invitational in Vegas that next weekend and I had a game, we agreed to wait until we returned from the holidays to take advantage of the psychologists. First we had to focus on our sporting events and our finals…but not in that order.

I knew that it was a long road ahead, but as we were on the bus heading to Ann Arbor that evening after Lauren and I agreed to work not just on being friends but on getting back together again for real, one of my teammates started blaring a song that he had just downloaded that week. Mercedes, Puck and Sam were singing about being fighters and never giving up. In that moment I realized two things; first of all they were going to be f'ing huge, and B, what Lauren and I had had was so totally worth fighting for. I might not have felt like I deserved happiness, but I knew that she did. So I was going to make sure that she always was.

* * *

><p>Please Read and Review. I'm beggin' here!<p>

Let me know what you liked, what you hated...if you think I should never pick up my laptop to write another word.

Alrightly Ladies and Gentlemen...I'd like to get 12 reviews for this chapter and two more for the previous one. That will bring me back up to my goal of one review per ever thousand words.

Can we do it? Yes We Can! (Does Bob the Builder still come on?)

Next up...We hear from the Young NDs, Tessa and Aidan and its back to New York for our intrepid trio. 

TTFN,  
>Anni<p> 


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